Environmental and health impact of small-scale gold mining activities in Ibanda District Of Uganda
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Date
2021-10
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kampala International University
Abstract
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.
Description
A thesis submitted to the department of biological and environmental sciences school of natural and applied sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of master of science in environmental management Of Kampala International University
Keywords
Environment, Health impact, Small-scale gold mining, Uganda