A gas flare in Nigeria:The effects of gas flaring impacts on global warming in Africa. (Photo Courtesy Peter Roderick/Friends of the Earth)

Nairobi — Salt manufacturers in the North Coast are counting their losses as the El-Nino rains subside in the area after causing great destruction.

The seven salt manufacturing firms between Gongoni and Kanagoni have lost about Sh 600 million in three weeks following the heavy rains that grounded salt production. A director at Malindi Salt Firm Mr Mohamed Awadh told journalists that his company has lost more than Sh 8 million during the three weeks rainy season.

"Rain water flooded our paddocks and destroyed the salt we were trapping. There was no evaporation due to the wet conditions," he said. Mr Awadh said two dykes constructed at a cost of Sh 5 million within the company salt grounds were completely destroyed by the floods. "A total of 4,000 tons of salt we had preserved in our tanks was also destroyed by the rainwater," said Mr Awadh.

At the moment, rain water is still flowing into the paddocks and salt harvesting has been suspended in all the six firms, he said. The salt manufacturers companies in the area include Malindi Salt, Krystaline Marereni, Krystaline Gongoni, Kemusalt, Kurawa, Mombasa Salt and Kensalt.

A manager at Krystaline Marereni Mr Bimji Varsani told the press that flooding into the salt firm land threatened them with more loses. "There is still a lot of water flowing into our farmland. It has already destroyed our paddocks," he said.

However, Mr Varsani said the loss incurred had not yet been established but it ran into millions of shillings. Kemusalt firm remains cut off from Mombasa after a section of the Malindi-Lamu road was swept away by floods at Kanagoni two weeks ago. If the rains persist, fears are that there could be scarcity of salt within the East African region which depends on the Gongoni-Marereni firms.

Apart from meeting the domestic and east African region demand, the companies also produce salt for export to the Middle East.