Livelihood, socio-economic and environmental impacts of brick making and sand mining in wetland areas of Ibanda district, western Uganda.

Abstract

The recent boom in the construction industry has led to drastic and indiscriminate increase in informal brick making and sand mining to provide building. materials of sand and bricks. This has come the cost of wetlands which are degraded to extract sand and clay. The focus of this study was to find out environmental sustainability and livelihood output of brick making and sand mining economic activities in wetlands of Ibanda district. The environmental impacts of brick making and sand mining practices were studied. The statistical examination of individual interview data from questionnaires illustrates that although there are social, economic and marginal food security benefits; degradation as a result of production activities of brick making and sand mining activities characterized by unfilled pits were major impacts on the environment. It can be concluded from this study that the community foregoes agricultural output for example, 8756 per year revenue from common beans, as a result of a single brick making activity due to land becoming unproductive because of unfilled pits. However, only crop production was assessed. Quantifying and assessing of other ecological values foregone reduces the gross profits from brick making and sand mining by a big value. Keywords: Natural Resources Exploitation, Brick making, Sand Mining Wetlands, Livelihood, Environmental impacts, western Uganda