Salt mines submerged at Kuntu by floods

Kuntu, June 8, GNA - Salt industries at Kuntu near Saltpond have been submerged in water as a following last Sunday's heavy down pour which flooded the area. A large quantity of salt worth nearly one billion cedis was destroyed as well as the saltpans.

Mr T.K. Osei, Chairman of the Mfantseman District Salt Winners' Association made this known when he conducted Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur, the District Chief Executive round to inspect the damage caused to the industries. Mr Osei said bags of salt bought by some of their customers and kept at the warehouse awaiting transport to the convey them to Burkina Faso were all destroyed. He said the damaged caused to the industries was extensive and that they would need billions of cedis to reactivate them. "We will soon meet to take a decision on the fate of over 200 workers employed by the industries," he stated.

The DCE said salt, "the white gold" was one of the President's Special Initiatives and the District Assembly had also selected it as one of the products to be promoted under the Rural Enterprise Development Programme. He said it was unfortunate that such a disaster had hit the industries and appealed to the Ministries of Private Sector Development, President's Special Initiatives and Forestry Lands and Mines to help the industries at Kuntu to come back to life.