LAKE KATWE SALT WORKS
Lake Katwe occurs to be a saline water lake. Within Queen Elizabeth National Park, in southern western Uganda, sits the ancient lake Katwe. The lake water is served by streams and without an outlet, consequently it is a salted lake with strong evaporation on the dry season and with concentration of minerals in the super saline water.
How can one get crater lakes?
Explosion craters are the violent volcanic explosions. These geographical features developed by volcanic activity roughly between 8000 and 10 000 years;
Molten lava from the crust of the earth utilizes great pressure as it tries to escape through a blocked vent or fissure.
Pressure causes the surface leaving behind a large depression known as a crater to sink. The explosion’s aftermath forms a realm of volcanic pile on the sides of the crater. We term this type of explosion ferocious volcanic eruption.
The depressions fill with water later on to create a crater lake as time goes on. Most of the crater lakes in western Uganda were created by this same volcanic activities.
Although some of these crater lakes still emit sulphurous gas smells, they are also known as extinct volcanoes; so, an eruption any moment poses tremendous risk to the surrounding areas.
Uganda boasts three main crater lakes: Nandali- Kasende in Kibale National Park; Lake Katwe in Queen Elizabeth National Park; Bunyaruguru craters on the great Kichwamba escarpment.
Katwe Salt Lake
North of Mweya peninsular, in the southern western region of Uganda within Queen Elizabeth national park, is Katwe salt lake. In western Uganda, Queen Elizabeth’s national park boasts the highest elevated craters.
Along with the striking 27km crater drive with appealing crater lakes like Katwe and Nyamunuka, visiting can also be done.
Like around Nyamunuka crater, Crater lakes in Queen Elizabeth national park offer a decent trekking ground where you may see flamingos, warthogs and other species.
Lake Katwe’s salinity can be explained by the several water streams that bring in water inlets. It doesn’t have any outlets, though. This is the fundamental cause likewise as to why ocean water is saline also. Much evaporation during the dry season concentrates the salt solution to produce salt rocks.
Still, the practice of salt mining at Katwe Crater Lake has lost significance. This is so since many other nations have unearthed other salt mines. For the people of Katwe and Katunguru some years ago, it was a rich economic activity. Before salt was found elsewhere in east Africa, Salt from Lake Katwe was also shipped to Congo and Rwanda.
From an acidic lake, how is salt extracted?
During the dry season, Lake Katwe in Queen Elizabeth National Park produces a lot of salt; peak seasons for salt mining fall between January and March and July to September. With evaporation in the dry season, concentrates the saline water of Lake Katwe to create a hyper solution producing salt.
The women gather off the surface’s developed crusted salt. It is precisely the salt that filtered to produce table salt. Men, on the other hand, shovel the salt blocks straight from the lake’s bottom. One does this near the lake’s shallow end.
Wooden walk paths divide the mines. One removes the salt in big blocks. Human eating uses the highly crystallized salt; unclean muddy salt is sold as cow salt licks. Since it’s used locally in Uganda to tenderize meat and beans, the muddy salt is also sold reasonably cheap.
Not a simple hobby is salt mining.
Under the hot sun and the foul smell from the evaporating saline water, the salt miners spend their whole day around the mines. The temperature is so low during the sunny season since the salt resides in the depression.
For the reproductive health of the workers—men as well as women—the salinity of Lake Katwe is poisonous and quite threatening. Women stuff flour into their intimate areas to prevent the poisonous water from getting inside them. Well, as the guys put on condoms to prevent water from affecting their penises.
According to legend, the salted water from Lake Katwe can render a man impotent and a woman barren notwithstanding their efforts to avoid sexual issues. These issues Katwe’s salt miners face have not stopped the mining operation; rather, they provide their sole source of income.
One half of a day is all it takes to see Katwe Salt Lake.
During the tour in Queen Elizabeth National Park, visiting the salt industry at Katwe forms half a day schedule. From the miners, the guide provides some crucial knowledge on salt mining and the local history.
Main economic activity in the Katwe area is salt mining. Nonetheless, it is not profitable anymore as it was in the past. The meager income the miners receive from salt mining means their standards remain somewhat low.
Only by purchasing the handcrafted goods from local artists will you be able to help these areas. Local people make these products with great passion and stages on the road sides to sell to the tourists. This is simply another means of augmenting the work involved in salt mining.
Besides salt mines, what else surrounds Lake Katwe?
Culture: Handcrafted goods
Along the path are vegetation and animals.
Local Katwe town people’s way of life.
Interestingly, there formerly was a salt processing factory running at Katwe. The poisonous compounds found in the salt from Lake Katwe ruined the manufacturing tubes. The Germany salt plant at Katwe Salt Lake is in ruins today. What about the people who go mining without protective gear if the salt corroded the metal tubes in the Germany factory?
