Teacher: Lakshmi Ponnada Year Group: Year-8

Unit: 7 Horn of Africa Topic: 7.6 Working as a salt miner (Structured

answers)

1. Sea water once flooded this area, became trapped, and then evaporated, leaving the salt
behind.

2. You are likely to feel boiling hot within seconds, doing that job. Your skin will feel
scorched. Your feet will feel on fire-from the ground below and the sun above. Sweat
will pour into your eyes. The hot dry air will sear your lungs. Your arms and shoulders
will ache. You will yearn for a drink of water.

3. There are hundreds. Below are some likely to apply in Ethiopia.

 Salt is an essential part of our diet. The sodium in it is essential for many body
processes. We would die without it. Our bodies can’t make sodium, so we must
take it in, in food.
 It is essential for animals too. They may get some from licking natural mineral
deposits in the ground. But often farmers provide an artificial salt lick- a block of
rock salt that the animals lick when they need to.
 As well as being essential for our diet, salt also adds flavor.
 It is used in preserving foods such as meat and fish, and in tanning animal skins to
make leather.
 It is used in making soap and paper.
 It is used in dyeing fabrics.

4. The photo shows the salt caravan passing along the canyon of the Saba River. At certain
times of year-as here- the river dries to a trickle.

5. Possible negative consequences: trucks could bring mining machinery, so Dejen will lose
his job; trucks could carry the salt away, so no need for the salt caravans; without the
visiting salt caravans, Hamed Ela might close down as a village; there might be ongoing
 conflict between the mining company and the local Afar.
Possible positive consequences: Dejen might get a job operating the machinery; the new
road could bring opportunities for other jobs, such as gliding tourists, or running a café
for the truck drivers; trucks can bring supplies of food and water, and other things; a new
road might bring buses or bus-taxis too, so Dejen could go to Berahile or Mekele to find
work, and come back at weekends to his village; with a new road, it will be easier for
people to go to hospital, or school, or for aid to get to the village.

6. The Horn of Africa will one day become part of a new long thin island because it is part
of a big chunk of East Africa that will be cut off from the rest of Africa. In this part of
Africa, Earth’s crust is being torn apart- and in time, the ocean will flood in. We can tell
this is happening from the earthquakes and volcanic activity in the area.