https://ecouganda.org/2017/06/03/strengthening-occupational-safety-and-health-standards-in-the-mining-sector/
By Phillo Aryatwijuka
STRENGTHEN
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS IN THE MINING SECTOR
On
28th April 2018 Uganda will join the rest of the world to celebrate annual
World Day for Safety and Health at Work which promotes the prevention of
occupational accidents and diseases globally.
The Uganda government through the
Ministry Of Gender, Labour and Social Development has a mandate under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 9 of 2006 to ensure that
all public and private workplaces, enterprises, companies, organizations adhere
to safety and health measures.
Despite the presence of these laws,
the mining sector in Uganda continues to be characterized by inadequate
enforcement and compliance to occupational health and safety standards. The
mining sector is largely informal with over a total of 200,000 ASM in mostly
gold mining and development minerals.
A perfect example that relates to OSH
challenges is reflected in Karamoja region ASM where miners use rudimentary
methods and equipment in mining without protective gears.ASM miners have cited
that the lack of protective gears not only because of ignorance on the need but
limited finances to buy these gears since the earnings are usually very low
coupled by the constant exploitations by middlemen.
Rudimentary methods in mining often leave
open excavated pits which have a huge bearing on environmental degradation and
have overtime caused several fatal accidents that on many occasions led to death.
Open pits also collect huge amounts of stagnant water and provide breeding
grounds for mosquitos causing malaria consequently increasing the mortality
rate in these areas most especially infant mortality rates. These infant
mortality rates are worsened by the fact that ASM is a family livelihood where
women and children engage in mining. For pregnant and nursing mothers these
mining sites do not have maternal and general health services. The situation is
further worsened by the lack of WASH facilities at several mining sites making
ASM susceptible to diseases.
The ASM sector has been put on
spotlight as a key perpetrator of child labour considering that mining has
become a family livelihood just like agriculture. Child labour in mining which
is associated with retardation and poor wellbeing in children. It should be
noted that the nutrition at these mining sites is poor and sometimes both
children and adults have one meal or not any a day.
Despite the presence of the
international legal framework on OSH in gold mining like the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, a global treaty that protects human health and the
environment from the adverse effects of mercury, the ASM gold mining sector in
Uganda has continued to be marred by use of mercury by some gold miners which
has a huge implication to the miners health, water and soil quality and overall
destruction of critical ecosystems that are vital for human survival
On the other hand the expanding entry
of ASM into mining of the development minerals; marble, limestone, gemstones, dimension
stones is likely to worsen the issues of public health considering that Uganda
is rich in development minerals and the construction sector is growing
throughout the country. Mining development minerals like marble and limestone
that dispel a lot of tiny dust particles have a health impact on ASM and
communities and has been closely linked with diseases like tuberculosis
therefore the need for without protective gears like dusk masks. These
development minerals also involve a lot of processes like blasting, rock falls,
raising dust particles which ultimately has impact on air, water and soil
quality of the environment consequently a threat to public health
Moving forward the government needs to
come out strongly and work with ASM and mining companies to strengthen the OSH
standards by formalizing and regulating the ASM sector, provision of credit
support to ASM groups to purchase protective gears, apprehend the users of
mercury in gold mining, provide accessible health services to mining
communities and strengthen OSH compliance through regular mine inspections of
both ASM and mining companies by regulatory agencies by providing adequate
funding and manpower.
No comments:
Post a Comment