Oxfam steps in to help salt traders in Tanzania

Arusha. After years of toiling with crude tools in salt extraction, artisanal salt miners in Hanang district, Manyara region may soon get relieved.

Oxfam Tanzania, a charity organization spearheading poverty alleviation efforts, has started to provide modern gear to the miners at the Lake Balang'da.

"Salt harvesting methods have been poor, leading to low productivity", said Donath Fungo, Oxfam programme manager for the northern regions.

The beneficiaries include 77 youths now supplied with gum boots, helmets, sun goggles, protective clothes (overalls) and ox carts to improve their work.

The young men are among people from various parts of Manyara region and beyond  involved in salt extraction at a saline lake near Mt Hanang.

Speaking to The Citizen last week, Mr Fungo said improved salt harvesting techniques have started to bear fruits there.

"Until then, the artisanal miners were getting only 100 bags per each 'vipando' (roughly an acre) but now this has gone up to 1,200 bags", he told The Citizen.

In the local market, the raw salt fetches about Sh40,000 a bag, he said, noting through Oxfam support, the processing machines supplied have added value to the mineral.

"Recently, we delivered the machines to be used for refining the raw salt and mixing it with iodine as recommended for human consumption", he said.

The programme manager added Oxfam would  also assist the local excavators with the packaging materials and search for markets for their semi-refined mineral.

Oxfam's support to the Hanang salt works comes after many years of fruitless efforts by the district authorities to place the salt mining activity in the mainstream economy.

Estimates had it that between 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes of raw salt is extracted annually from the 400 ha Balang'da salt pan, some 25 km from Katesh, the district seat.

Up to 3,000 people are said to be directly and indirectly dependent on all manner of salt extraction and sales, including the middle men.

Two years ago, the Hanang district council announced it would construct a Sh600 million salt processing plant at Gendabi village near the salt plan.

However, such plans have largely remained on a drawing board. In the 2016/2017 financial year, the district council earned Sh100 million as tax revenue from salt business.

Raw salt from Hanang is also  sold in Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other countries depending on demand.

Until 2014/2015, the salt demand in Tanzania was estimated to be 273,000  tonnes annually with 202,000 being for direct human consumption.