Santa Maria Saltpans

Santa Maria Saltpans
Saline marsh of Santa Maria
Location	south of Sal, Cape Verde within Santa Maria

Santa Maria Saltpans (Portuguese: Salgadas de Santa Maria), also as the Santa Maria Saline Marsh is a saline marsh in the southernmost portion of the island of Sal, Cape Verde nearly surrounding the town of Santa Maria. It is one of two on the island, the other is Pedra de Lume and its Cagarra crater. The saline marshes and its evaporation ponds forms a part of a protected area as a protected countryside. Much of the protected area is the northern part, parts of the area near the town is also a protected area. Its length in the northern portion is 1.43 km from east to west and 1.3 km for its width. The portion west of the city center is 400 meters long from east to west and 300 meters wide, only the northeast part remains which is about 150 by 100 meters.

The town of Santa Maria was founded in these saltpans in 1835 by colonial governor Manuel António Martins, the last after Pedra de Lume. Later, it amounted to 30,000 tons of salt were shipped from Santa Maria. Most of the product was exported to Brazil, which was halted in 1887 when Brazil imposed a high tax on imported salt to protect its own salt production. The town went into a deep decline, only to recover in 1920 when Portuguese and French investors resumed salt production, one of them J.A. Nascimento. In 1927, salt started to be exported to the Belgian Congo which remained until the nation became independent as Congo-Kinshasa in 1961 and nationalized its salt production. Not long after, Santa Maria was no longer island capital, it was moved to Espargos, at the time a newly created town. Salt production started to fell and further production lasted until 1984. Today, salt production narrowly resumed but in small quantites, though the majority of salt produced and consumed in Cape Verde are from desal plants.

Coordinates: 16°36′37″N 23°54′11″W / 16.6102°N 23.90305°W / 16.6102; -23.90305