Hoima women breaking stones decry of low price

Hoima:Various miners, especially women operating in different stone quarry sites around Hoima East Division, Hoima City, have expressed their dissatisfaction over the constant low prices of gravel, Dorothy Nyambubi writes.

They stress that despite working hard to improve their livelihoods, the little pay has kept them in poverty and languishing.

The information was obtained during a survey conducted by this news portal in Mparo North cell, Kentale Hill, Kyendikyo village, and Kyamikono stone quarry sites to ascertain the working conditions of people engaged in artisan extractives.

However, the findings indicate that issues range from health complications to little pay, the market, and a lack of equipment, among others, thus affecting their household incomes.

With the existence of numerous challenges in the stone quarrying business, miners are mostly affected by prolonged low prices of gravel, which have had several impacts on their livelihoods.

According to women, they have not been impelled to benefit from their hard work, and this is due to the lack of an association bringing them together or having a leader in their business intervene on the uniform prices with the buyers.

The miners have complained of multiple dealers and brokers involved in the business who end up taking advantage of them by undervaluing their products, making delayed payments, or sometimes going unpaid after taking the gravel.

At least 40% of the women working in these stone quarry sites are most affected by this business since they are not aggressive and assertive towards the dealers, like men who keep on following up on their payments. Additionally,  men are being respected compared to women, which sabotages their daily routine.

“Dealers delay paying us after taking our stones, or if they do, it’s always little compared to the effort put in. At least most men are respected and paid on time since they are aggressive in nature compared to women; therefore, we call upon our leaders and area MPs of parliament to intervene.”.

Katusiime Gertrude and Businge Elizabeth, both women working in the Mparo stone quarry site, decry that however much they are committed to working, the prices drain their energy, adding that even the equipment they use to extract and crush stones is expensive, calling upon leaders to support them because each person ought to pay 20,000 shillings on each truck loaded with gravel since they are working on someone’s piece of land.

“We use rudimentary tools that are tiring and time-consuming, so if the government can support miners with heavy machines to extract and crush stones, our health will not be at risk,” said the miners.

In an exclusive interview with ugreports.co.ug, miners at the Kyamikono stone quarry site in Kyedikye village, led by Kunihira Janet, said that, on top of their little pay, they are now worried about the 20,000 shillings tax recently imposed on them by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) since they use their land to extract gravel.

They say that the hard-earned money from the gravel is extremely small to sustain their livelihoods and, at the same time, educate children since the trade chain involves a lot of dealers and brokers who pay them little money.

However, they have called upon the area Member of Parliament, Isingoma Patrick Obama, to come to their rescue by intervening so that they can have a clear market for the gravel and also provide the necessary equipment to ease their work.

“We earn very little money per truck of gravel; it is always between 90,000 and 50,000 rupees, or even 30 rupees, depending on the type of gravel you are selling, so we request the NFA to exempt us from paying the ground rent.” This is the little money we use on buying food, paying school fees, and paying rent, among other basic needs of life.”

When we contacted Mr. Tumwesige Eryabu, one of the dealers at the Kyamikono stone quarry site in Kyedikye, he said that there is a chain of people involved in the business, right from the site engineer to the ground dealers, which is also a challenge to them, saying each middleman in the process will require some money in order to deal with you in business, thus leading to the little pay of the miners.

He also urged leaders to intervene by educating them on how to run such businesses and linking them to the right market for their products.

“By the time we get the business from the drivers, the money is always less since there are middlemen in the business; we request our leaders to link us to the right market for reasonable prices.”

However, Kyaligonza Stewart, the managing director of the Mparo stone quarry site, decried the same issue of multiple dealers, saying he plans to convene a meeting with miners and drivers who negotiate prices with the site dealers in order to have a fixed price for each type of gravel.

“Soon I will convene a meeting between miners and drivers who act like our bosses in this business on the issue of prices,” he said.

Aldon Wakukamba, an NFA spokesperson, disclosed that miners are expected to pay a ground rent of $300,000 per month, which they have not been paying for close to eight months, stressing that they have defaulted on the agreement. He further says that if they are not willing to comply as per the agreement, they should be ready to vacate the quarry site.

“We temporarily imposed 20,000 shilings on them because they have breached the agreement; however, each miner is expected to pay 10,000 shilings per month through their authority; this money is collected by an individual from them who is well known by the NFA and has the license to operate in the forest reserve area,” he added.

Speaking to Mugisa Maureen, the chairperson of the Kyedikyo stone quarry women empowerment group, she divulged that there are over 70 miners extracting gravel from the NFA reserve forest area, saying that if the NFA demands only $300,000 per month from the miners, then the authority cheats them by overcharging exorbitant fees, thus urging for intervention from the land owners.

“Let NFA convene a meeting to resolve the impasse of high ground rent imposed on miners by authority; it should be at least 5000 shillings per month.”

Our reporter could not get a comment from the stone quarry site authority led by one known as Irene on the issue of the ground rent, saying she has nothing to say regarding the matter.

It is estimated that a small gravel truck costs up to 90,000 shillings, which contains between 150 and 170 basins of gravel; medium-sized gravel costs only 50k; and hard-core gravel stands at 30,000 shillings, inclusive of the said taxes, and this money can be made in two to three weeks.

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