Browsing by Author "Zakaria, Omar Moalim"

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    Environmental and health impact of small-scale gold mining activities in Ibanda District Of Uganda
    (Kampala International University, 2021-10) Zakaria, Omar Moalim
    In the recent times, Artisanal Small-Scale Gold mining activities have significant impact on environment and health of people in Ibanda District of Uganda. The study aimed at investigating the environmental and health impacts of small-scale mining activities on the surrounding communities of Ibanda District. The study was conducted from a total of 156 respondents using questionnaires. The study employed open cast and under surface techniques. The Small-Scale Gold mining is done by Simba Gold mining. The result revealed that perception and environment is significantly correlated with p-value p  0.0005. The result also depicts that environment and health is significantly correlated with p-value p  0.0005. The result showed that the prevalent diseases in the community are diarrhoea, skin disease and injuries. It is seen from the result that 75% of health workers admit that the health sector in this Municipality is not facilitated enough to handle health issues arising from mining activities. The result also showed that removal of the top soils, trees and vegetation with heavy machines leads to wearing away of the soil nutrients and makes the land unfit for farming. It is observed from the findings that the heaviest impact of mining activities has been land and vegetation degradation (66.4%) followed by water pollution (25.4%). air pollution and noise pollution are 5.5% and 2.8 respectively. It is concluded that mining artisanal small scale gold mining activities have negative effects on the environment such as pollution, cutting of the vegetation without replacement. Hence, increased gold mining activities will further destroy the vegetation in Kicuzi Sub-county.