TITLE:
Exploitation and Excavation of Land for Clay as Raw Material for Potters in Vume in the Volta Region of Ghana
AUTHORS:
Kofi Asante-Kyei, Charles Dogbeda Melos Vicku, Henrietta Barfi-Mensah Barfi
KEYWORDS:
Clay, Clay Winning, Excavation, Potters and Pottery Making
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.10,
October
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: Clay is
a precious natural resource that is used in practically every aspect of life. It has a wide range of
applications, including utilitarian and aesthetic items as well as electrical
and electronic gadgets. Vume is rich in clay types, which may be found in vast
concentrations. In
Vume, the commonest way of clay winning is the open pit method. Most clay
winners usually abandoned the sites after their clay winning activities without
any effort to reclaim it. As a
result, the study was designed to investigate the causes of such clay over
exploitation and its consequences in Vume. The study employed qualitative research
method with phenomenological approach to investigate the problem. The convenience sampling as
non-probabilty sampling method was adopted to select six (6) clay winners from
two (2) sampling sites of clay winning, making a total sampling size of twelve
(12) for this research. The
justification was that these clay winners were available at the clay sites and also engaging in
unsystematic clay winning activities during the visits by the researchers. The main instruments used
for data collection were interviews and direct observation of sites. The study showed that if
this rapid clay depletion was not addressed, it would have a negative impact on
the pottery and ceramic centers in Vume. The study recommended among others that, there could
be proper mechanism to organize clay winners into Small Scale Enterprises and
become official distributors of clay to potters in Vume and other industries as
well as institutions within the catchment area so that government could get tax
revenue from the clay winning activities to develop Vume and the country at
large.