By KT Reporter
The Aswa River, a lifeline for hundreds in Northern Uganda, is choking under the weight of uncontrolled sand mining. This is due to the booming construction industry demand for the coarse texture of sand which is available in this wetland.
Once a clean and reliable source of water for communities, farmers, and wildlife, Aswa now suffers from increasing siltation, degraded water quality, and dwindling aquatic life, and generally endangered ecosystems. For almost a decade, over a thousand villagers from the parishes of Akor, Awir, Bolnyapo, Ojul, Akuki, Oponi, Apurugali, and Dii-cunyi in Ogur sub county, Lira district, and those from Apala sub county in the neighboring Alebtong District converge at the banks of the Aswa river to mine sand.
From sunrise to sunset, mothers, husbands and wives, and children who ideally should be at school come to the river bank, each armed with a hoe, spade, basin and any tool which can dig, wash and transport the sand to a raised ground for drying. The site is a beehive of activities, also a business hub for women who instead of mining the sand opt to cook food and local bread commonly known as kabalagala to sell to the “miners” at a small fee.
Once cleaned and dried, the sand is then moved to the “sand market” from where it is sold off to willing buyers for construction purposes. Acak Hellen from Bolnyapo- piny village, Akangi parish in Ogur Sub County was a farmer; one who would plough other people’s garden on loan, normally paid at the end of the year. However, because most people would refuse to pay, she opted to venture into sand mining, a lucrative business which for years have been providing all that her family needed.
Translation: “When it started raining heavily, the running water would carry sediments which we would collect and sell as sand. One a good day we would collect like a basin or two the following day we do the same and sell it off. Because ploughing on loan was hard and people were not paying well, we tried digging like where I am seated now and the deeper, the clearer sand we got. We sold that off, used the money for taking care of home and that is how we stopped digging to start sand mining for business starting from the other side up to far ahead there.”
Although she is earning between UGX 60,000 to UGX 110,000 from a trip of sand depending on the size of the tipper, Acak acknowledges that the activity is not safe. Aside from persistent skin infections and other diseases, the risk of being buried by the sand is equally high.
Translation: “As a woman you know we are very delicate but now we have to enter into this dirty water which covers your entire body which in most cases results into candidiasis which is very itchy. For example, if like that one standing in the water is sick, us down the stream will end up contracting the disease. For my case, my daughter now has this chronic skin infection which keeps resurfacing after every treatment cycle.”
Flavia Angom, a resident of Bol-nyapo village who has been mining the sand for the last five years acknowledges the negative impact it has on both the environment and their health. Despite persistently suffering from skin disease, Angom says the need to provide for her family keeps her on the sand pit.
The United Nations Environmental Program reports that sand mining is a massive business with 50 billion tons of sand used globally each year. It further reveals that each year, sand and gravel account for up to 85 percent of everything mined globally.
The report also warned that the industry is largely ungoverned. According to the Trade’s statistic branch of the United Nations, China accounts for a fifth of the world’s sand imports globally. For someone like Christine Angom, a resident of Ojul village, Obim parish Apala sub county in Alebtong district who has been in the business for 8 years, sand mining is lucrative. The mother of 4 brags that she has been able to, and is still paying her children through school.
Translation: “After every two days I make a profit of between 30,000 to 40,000/= even though this work is very hectic. We do not want to continue doing it but my children has to eat and go to school so there is no way I can make money other than from here because even if you say farming, these days the harvest is very low.”
Local leaders say mining activity must be stopped because it is damaging the ecosystems. Betty Atoke, the Community Development Officer (CDO) attached to Ogur sub county acknowledged how bad sand mining is, although she says attempts to stop the community have always been futile.
“As sub-county leaders, we have ever tried coming here to talk to these people to stop this activity but you talk to them, they be as if they are understanding but when you leave, they are back to the same activity!” she lamented.
With rapid urbanization and infrastructural development, the United Nations Environment Program forecasts a 5.5 percent rise per year in sand demand but the informality in Uganda’s sand mining sector however denies the government potential revenue.
This is confirmed by Atoke who explained that even though that is an economic activity generating money for the locals, the sub county cannot raise revenue from it.
“Otherwise, this is a very serious, dangerous activity. It even brings soil erosion; the water is spoiled; it is not even moving the way it used to; the water way is full of soil-silted.”
Siltation, is the process where fine particles of soil, sand, mud, and other materials (silt) are deposited in a body of water. Although this deposition can occur naturally due to erosion and runoff, for the case of Aswa, it has been exacerbated by human activities; sand mining, along the riverbanks which has disrupted the natural ecosystem and increased sediment load in the water.
Ambrose Okare, an extension officer in charge environment attached to Lira District Local Government said many wetlands and rivers within the district have been degraded and silted respectively.
“They discovered that this sand is good for building, that’s why people started using it, because of the money. In other areas, people use wetlands for cultivations, people can cultivate there and plant sugarcane, yams.”
Adding “we have collected the list of these wetlands in all the district so now we know where they are, which village they are located, which parish they are, and which sub-counties, so that it gives us time to assess them.”
According to him, the district is working tirelessly to regenerate the areas.
“We have the map being given for water environment, the most degraded wetland is shown in the map, we see the color is red, somehow degraded, it is lightly green, we are not tempering with pure green. We have Ogur in red, we also have Ayami, and lastly, Aromo.” He added.
He further explained that the district is coming up with by-laws to mitigate environmental degradation.
Currently, Uganda does not have a specific National Strategy dedicated to sustainable sand mining or promoting alternatives to river sand. The regulation of sand mining is primarily managed through existing legislation, including the National Environment Act (2019) and the Mining Act.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is responsible for issuing permits and overseeing compliance. However, a comprehensive, national-level strategy for sustainability is not yet in place.
Naomi Karekaho, the corporate communications manager at NEMA, said the agency is working tirelessly to regulate sand mining across the country although there are still cases of illegal miners.
“It is not true that they are above the law and Uganda needs sand and every effort is being made to ensure that the sand is mind in a sustainable manner. If there is any illegality, we have an express penalty scheme that charges money in billions of Uganda shillings if you are found to be degrading the land.”
The struggle for clean water;
Aswa II Catchment area was initially crisscrossed by rivers and streams that feed the livelihoods of thousands. But now, the region is grappling with deep and complex challenges, where climate, conflict, and community all converge. In addition, access to basic water and sanitation is very limited with only 57 percent of the total population across the Aswa 11 sub-catchment and Lira district having access to improved water sources while only 18 percent has access to improved sanitation facilities. Akor village had once been known for its thriving boreholes and protected wells. Elders often told stories of a time when water flowed even in the harshest of dry seasons but things had changed.
Akello Miriam, a 36-year-old mother of five, starts her every day at 4am with her yellow jerrycan in hand. The old borehole became faulty three months ago, and the nearest water source was now a three-hour walk away down the rocky paths toward the now seasonal Aswa River.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she muttered as she tramped through the dust. “We used to have wells providing clean water when the borehole is not working but now all the wells have contaminated water.”
Furthermore, flash floods, recurring droughts and other extreme weather events are intensifying because of a changing climate, which is further exacerbating water insecurity.
Whereas some countries have banned sand mining, here in Uganda, it is going on amidst friction – those in support of the lucrative business and those in favor of protecting the environment.
A scoping study conducted in the Aswa I & II sub-catchments by Join for Water, a Belgian water NGO, in partnership with the Water Resources Institute (WRI) with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation revealed multiple challenges affecting water resources, including rapid population growth, high poverty levels, low literacy, insecure land ownership, and weak enforcement of conservation regulations.
The organization is now proposing a range of interventions that combine environmental restoration with community empowerment, focusing on the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems through a community-based water resources management approach.
They are also strengthening institutional and stakeholder capacity for effective planning and coordination through improving the availability of data and knowledge on local water resources, ensuring that decisions are evidence-based and context-specific.
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