New rules of engagement on Lake Victoria over fish stocks

What you need to know:

  • Militarising shoreline. Envuba mbi was a military operation and it only added to the guns held by fish farmers. Disputes or breaches are resolved by gunshots. It is only a matter of time before the shoreline can become a fully militarised zone.

Last week, President Museveni with much fanfare, visited Kyamuswa County in Kalangala District to mark the climax of the ‘Ban illegal fishing’ or ‘envuba embi’ in Lake Victoria, whose fishing stocks have been depleted.
Illegal fishing has been fostered through illegal nets that harvest immature fish, raided fish breeding grounds in fjords, bays and other inlets.

Fish habitats have also been ravaged by environmental factors, specifically uncontrolled water pollution by industrial effluent from industries on the lake that has starved the lake of its capability to naturally breathe, the advance of green algae “Mubiru” over vast distances, pollution by chemical fertilisers, breach of the shoreline and the 200-meter distance free from development that is supposed to be enforced by Nema.

The handling of ‘envuba embi’ has used rather drastic measures. First has been the resettlement of fishing communities from scattered centres along Kyamuswa County’s 82 islands (this county has a continental record of these physical features) into more settled landing sites. Just 28 are gazetted in the entire district. In the landing sites where compliance has been tepid, boating gear has been shifted to the land. Fishermen must comply with the legislation requiring minimum length and width of sea-craft, 28 feet long and 4 feet wide.

This change is bad news for timber resources, where the remaining Central Forest Reserves are under attack from illegal logging. Most of the legendary hardwoods used to build sea craft, mikebo, nkoba and even the more common ones like empewere are already in short supply. The President must carefully think of how one victory can result in another disaster. This start, however, must not be in vain. Disappearing species like tilapia are already back in consumable proportions. It is already an emergency that a legal framework to regulate commercial fisheries.

The arrival of cage farming has already zoned off large sections of the bays where the small fishes used to thrive. Fishermen can no longer fish along the shorelines, and I have already mentioned the environmental cost of wanton harvesting of hardwoods to meet the legal standards.
Cage farmers incur huge costs to set up, tear down and feed their stocks and must be protected. However, in the name of security, the cage farmers are fully fledged militias protecting their stock. Envuba mbi was a military operation and it only added to the guns held by fish farmers. Disputes or breaches are resolved by gunshots.

It is only a matter of time before the shoreline can become a fully militarised zone. The fragile eco-system of Kalangala District is a combination of its location atop four national strategic resources. It is the biggest rain belt feeding the rainfall systems of central Uganda around Lake Victoria. Second, the natural forests are an important break on the strong wind systems that easily can ravage entire communities and are a long-term source of wood that services construction and other industries.

Third, the cultivation of oil palm is an important mitigator of foreign exchange, cooking oil is the third most costly commodity in the economy after petroleum and sugar. Fourth, the islands are sitting at the centre of the oil belt that stretches from River Katonga through Bukkakata to the middle of the lake. Tourism is important, but not necessarily strategic as it is mostly an intervention on the employment and leisure side.

The death of the lake, the collapse of forest cover or failure to monitor petroleum - all pose unique problems. Agencies such as Nema are very thin on the ground. National Forest Authority is not well managed, staff conspire with illegal loggers to cut trees. The Water ministry does not have apparatus on the islands to monitor water quality and two years ago, water borne poisoning, was being reported. Even oil slick is an environmental hazard, because once the forest cover is gone, uncontrolled fires have great capacity of destruction.
There is a great anxiety yet revival of fisheries, the third biggest export, is a very big opportunity.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law
and an Advocate. [email protected]