Shift to Solar Power Raises Incomes for Salt-mining Families in India

RSSfeed

Every year, whole families in the rural Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat await the end of the rainy season, when they make their trek to the salt-rich Thar desert. Tens of thousands of men, women and children migrate there for eight months a year during which they dig wells that fill with groundwater brackish enough to produce tons of salt. They pump the water into flat pans spread out in the hot sun, where it evaporates, leaving behind heaps of salt crystals. It's a livelihood of hard labor and low returns.

More...