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 i...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.展开更多
文摘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.