Can salt alleviate appetite? Inside the salt flats of La Guajira, Colombia

Manaure, Colombia– The seaside ponds extended over the horizon, their shallow blue waters dotted with sparkling pyramids of white– every one a stack of artisanal salt waiting to be gathered.

In the department of La Guajira, Colombia, this salt was as soon as called “oro blanco” or “white gold”, and its production continual whole neighborhoods of the regional Wayuu Indigenous individuals.

Now, the salt market is having a hard time to make it through– and revitalising it might be one of the terrific tests of Gustavo Petro’s presidency.

In May, Petro’s left-wing administration revealed a strategy to invest 61 billion Colombian pesos– roughly $15m– in La Guajira’s hopping salt sector.

“The capacity of La Guajira is tremendous in its wealth,” Petro stated at a press conference in Manaure, a town in the area understood for its salt production.

Petro’s strategy is being discussed in Colombia’s Congress. Regional salt employees and supporters alerted that, in order to be successful, the strategy has to challenge the mismanagement that has actually brought the market to its knees.

Located on a peninsula sticking out into the Caribbean Sea, La Guajira is thought about the northern most area of South America.

There, a dry, desert-like environment dominates. The sun burns hot, rain hardly ever falls and strong winds whip along the coast.

The extreme environment has actually created perfect conditions for salt production, as water vaporizes rapidly. Even before European colonisation, the Indigenous individuals of La Guajira are thought to have actually collected salt to trade for items like gold.

Salt stays among the only incomes for Indigenous neighborhoods in the location. To this day, at the break of day, Wayuu locals get to Manaure’s salt ponds with choices and shovels to mine the waters and rake up salt crystals.

Some males protect their faces from the sun with balaclavas. The ladies, on the other hand, use standard gowns that extend past their ankles and paint their confront with a natural pigment– made from dark mushrooms– to safeguard their skin.

“This work is hard. The sun is really hot, and the temperature level high. We live day by day,” stated Franklin Mendoza, a regional who has actually operated in salt extraction for 20 years.

Mendoza resides on the borders of Manaure, in a casual settlement developed over an obsolete salt pond. He approximated 170 households live there in overall– all of whom draw out salt. They make about $5 a day.

“When the harvest season shows up, we rejoice due to the fact that we see there is an earnings source,” Mendoza stated.

Hardship is endemic to La Guajira, in spite of its abundance of natural resources.

While the salt ponds in Manaure can producing 1 million tonnes of salt annually, professionals stated the present output is dramatically less.

Colombia’s National Mining Agency reported that the market in charge of collecting Manaure’s salt just produced 205,204 tonnes in 2023, totaling up to $3.7 m in revenue.

Regional advocacy groups and salt miners see the deficiency as a missed out on chance. In 2022, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) reported that La Guajira saw the biggest rise in hardship of any department in Colombia.

That provided it the 2nd greatest portion of bad locals in the nation. More than 65 percent of La Guajira’s population was considered to reside in hardship, specified in the area as making less than $76 a month.

The outcomes have actually been ravaging. The National Institute of Health discovered that, in 2023, 70 kids under the age of 5 passed away from severe poor nutrition in La Guajira, more than in any other area.

“Previously, we gained from the salt ponds. I studied and ended up high school thanks to the salt extraction,” stated Juan Carlos Epieyu, a Wayuu male in Manaure.

In the 1970s, salt production struck a peak. “But now, there is a great deal of joblessness,” Epieyu discussed.

Stretches of serious dry spell in La Guajira, consisting of in 2019 and 2020, have actually just magnified issues. Citizens stated they do not have access to safe and clean water, and crops have actually dried up, leading the Colombian federal government to state a humanitarian emergency situation in the area.

“We are thirsty. Our animals are likewise passing away of thirst. The dry season has actually been really strong,” stated Epieyu, who herds goats. 5 of his animals have actually passed away over the previous couple of years.

Some critics indicate mismanagement in the salt market as part of the factor for La Guajira’s financial instability.

From 1941 to 2002, the nationwide federal government supervised of the salt mines, initially through the Bank of the Republic and later on through the Institute of Industrial Development (IFI).

Native neighborhoods chafed at the federal control. They asserted their rights to the area and ultimately struck a contract with the federal government to develop a brand-new entity called the Maritime Salt Flats of Manaure (SAMA).

It was developed as a public-private collaboration. The local federal government of Manaure holds a 24-percent stake in the business, while 3 Indigenous associations– the Sumain Ichi, the Waya Wayuu and the Asocharma– handle the rest.

In the 2 years given that it took control of the salt market, SAMA has actually dealt with criticism for stopping working to produce an earnings, even after handing its administration to a personal operator, the Big Group.

According to a 2023 choice from the Constitutional Court, SAMA has a financial obligation of more than $5m. In 2020, employees held a strike that lasted more than 600 days to require overdue salaries.

Robinson Ramos, the president of the Sintrasales salt employees union, implicated SAMA of not actively producing salt however rather depending on its reserves.

“We fret every day that the business will get to a point that can not sustain itself,” Ramos stated. “This would produce an excellent financial and social effect in our town.”

Miguel Epieyu, a Wayuu leader who belongs to the Sumain Ichi association, likewise kept in mind that the equipment utilized to procedure, tidy and transfer the salt has actually fallen under disrepair. The regional pier, for example, has actually collapsed.

He stated the issues started when the federal government turned over the salt plants to SAMA. A substantial part of the existing equipment has actually not been upgraded because 2002.

“There was a shift procedure when no upkeep was done to existing facilities, consisting of the cleaning plant and the pier,” Miguel discussed.

“The ideal thing to do would be to turn over an active market, not a lot of scrap, ruins and rotting facilities.”

Critics stated the mismanagement goes beyond bad organization choices and falling apart devices.

On March 4, members of Asocharma, Sintrasales and other employees associations submitted a grievance with the Attorney General’s Office and other entities, declaring that unauthorised people drawn out salt unlawfully in La Guajira and offered it at costs lower than the production expense.

According to the grievance, examined by Al Jazeera, people connected with SAMA were amongst those making money from the off-book sales.

Ramos, who signed the grievance, stated comparable claims have actually been flowing for years. “Since 2010, we have actually been knocking acts of corruption,” Ramos stated.

Even the National Mining Agency kept in mind in a June report that there were circumstances of “theft of salt”, totaling up to 600 tonnes each day.

It declared that members of the Sumain Ichi association– part of SAMA– were associated with the prohibited trade.

Elmer Altamar, a legal agent for the Sumain Ichi group, informed Al Jazeera that specific people were driven to desperation due to the fact that of the alarming conditions they dealt with.

“Those Indigenous individuals are not taking. They are making it through,” Altamar stated.

He rather contacted the Colombian federal government to offer social programs to resolve the hardship in La Guajira– and speak with more carefully with regional Indigenous neighborhoods before enacting any brand-new strategy.

President Petro’s administration is hoping an increase of capital can assist start the market and reactivate salt production.

By investing $15m in SAMA, the nationwide federal government would get a 50.1 percent stake in the business– a managing interest.

In a press conference in May, Petro stated he saw revitalising the salt sector as part of a financial strategy that would likewise assist deal with La Guajira’s water scarcity and hardship.

“There was a balance in between salt, drinkable water and life in Manaure that declared bankruptcy, and it never ever recuperated,” Petro stated.

The president had actually formerly stated a state of financial, social and ecological emergency situation in La Guajira. The Constitutional Court struck down the statement, arguing that Petro’s federal government had actually not used an enough description to validate emergency situation steps.

“Why existed a lot opposition to fixing the issue of water in La Guajira? Since there is power behind it. Due to the fact that it represents votes,” Petro stated.

Al Jazeera got in touch with the Ministry of Commerce to ask how the president’s technique may reduce the capacity for corruption in SAMA and how it would make sure Indigenous representation.

In its action, the ministry stated it might not address those concerns at this phase.

Congress will continue to talk about the task in the next legal term start on Saturday. The outbound Congress just recently struck down a piece of legislation that proposed utilizing monetary returns from the task to reduce the humanitarian crisis in La Guajira.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, SAMA ought to see monetary returns in 3 years. Before that, the advantages to the neighborhoods in La Guajira would be limited to creating work and tourist.

Miguel, the Wayuu leader, stated openness was needed for the future of La Guajira’s salt market. “We require to produce a tracking system to ensure the objectives proposed are attained,” he discussed.

He included that he felt there was little choice however to accept the federal government’s strategy.

“Looking at the circumstance objectively, the dreams and hopes of our forefathers who defended their rights [to manage the salt industry] are a failure. We do not have any other alternative. I simply hope that the medication is not even worse than the health problem.”