Realities of an isolated salt farm in Tanzania
Tanzania has recently been hit by an unprecedented amount of rainfall due to the recent El Nino, a weather phenomenon that started early September 2023, causing significant infrastructural damage and, sadly, loss of life due to flooding and landslides. There has been a huge 72% increase during September, 2023 to January, 2024 compared to the average monthly records for the same period. Many industries and communities have been significantly affected by the torrential rains and the consequent flooding. Our thoughts are with those families around the country who have lost loved ones. We wish to share with you our own story on the impact this had on our salt farm and our local community.
Traditionally we receive two annual seasonal rains when the monsoon changes between March and June (the long “Masika” rains) and then between the end of October to mid-December (the short “Mvuli” rains). The primary impact of this is that the access road to the area becomes impassable due to flooding and/or waterlogging of the surrounding soil and road. However over recent years, primarily due to climate change, the nearby River Wami has continually burst its banks due to unusually high rainfall upcountry. As a result of this, the whole surrounding area finds itself under a meter and a half of water for the better part of 4 months.
This has had a severe impact on our business and our local community as the only access is now via a single beach route that takes three times as long and a significant cost in travel as it includes a boat crossing over a river which is only achievable at low tides. We continue to assist in bringing supplies for the village each week to provide other means of support and we will continue to do so until the floods and rain subside.
Over the last few years, we have slowly been building a protective wall around our salt farm due to a large flood that destroyed a significant amount of the farm’s pans in 2018. We may have temporarily won the battle against the floods, but the rain still dilutes our brine forcing us to continuously restart our production process. Ultimately, this has a negative effect on our salt farmers and community.