Stone miners living on half a dollar a day

The persistent sound of mallet against stone is almost deafening. The stony countryside of Nyacyonga in Gasabo district is interspersed with deep gullies, and holes. The rough terrain similar to what the moon is depicted to look like. Scattered all over are men, women and children. The heat is sweltering, the dust, choking. Under this harsh environment, the men and women are deep into their tasks. These are miners are a stone quarry, the predominant economic activity in Nyacyonga. With the boom in the construction business, there has been an increase in the need for stone, thus increased mining. The need for these stones cannot be argued, neither the economic benefits the buildings they will be used on cannot be disputed. The unfortunate fact however, is that those at the core of ensuring the construction industry is supplied with this necessary raw material, work under harsh conditions, barely eking a living. “I am a widow and have seven kids to look after. The 250frw per day we get here is too small for all my necessities, but it is better than breathing off the streets as a vagabond or a prostitute.” Like her fellow workers at the mine, Olive Uwamariya has a sense of despair and sadness. As most women on the quarry, her task is to crush medium-sized rocks into small pieces, to be used in concrete. Nobody wears protective gear such as face-masks against the dust, or overalls and goggles to prevent chips of stone causing injuries to their bodies or eyes. Small children sit next to their mothers, oblivious of the potential danger should the stone flint flying all over strike their eyes. The dizzying crevasses, often more than ten meters deep, pose a threat of another kind. Yet men boldly go down to the bottom without any protective supports as others gather the sharp pieces glittering against the hot midday sun, before dangerously hiking back to the outside, where they dispose their load. Here the stones are sorted, with some of them ready to be used, mainly in road repair and construction. The remaining rocks are picked up by the women, who with their hammers reduce them to various smaller sizes for different purposes such as concrete and gravel. Meanwhile, the ground shudders with trucks coming and going. A full load of the big untreated stones sells at Rfw50,000, whereas the smaller ones range from Frw 40,000 to 70,000 depending on the quality and size. The miners say that it takes about a month of work to fill a truck. At a pay of Frw 250 per day, they get only some Frw 7500 per month, a paltry fraction of what the quarry owners earn per truck. The miners’ working day starts at 7 am, and they then work hard for six hours until 1 pm, when they have lunch and take some rest in the shade of the few trees scattered around the site. They resume work at 3 pm, for another three hours. Hard and long work, in difficult circumstances, without any protection and safety measures, for less than half a dollar per day is what the women in Nyacyonga are working for. With such meagre earnings, it is almost impossible to keep poverty out of their homes and ultimately out of their lives. Ends