Aquaculture deserves more attention
Mr Michael J. Ssali
What you need to know:
- We cannot expect our lakes to supply enough fish to meet the existing big local and global demand of fresh water fish.
One of the biggest complaints raised in the past by the people living along the shores of Lake Victoria and other lakes in Uganda has been continuous harassment by security forces fighting reported bad fishing practices. We have witnessed numerous scenes on television of security forces burning reported bad and illegal fish nets purportedly confiscated from unscrupulous fishermen.
Thousands of people who earned a living from fish-related economic activities along the lake shores have lost their jobs due to increased regulation of fishing in the lakes by the government. Hence the increased outcry of higher unemployment levels in the communities along the lake shores!
The biggest accusation made by the security officers policing the lakes has been the use of illegal fishing gear to harvest immature fish. Despite the pain and the economic hardships caused to the men and women that have been forced out of the lakes and the lake shores, the fact is that we cannot expect our lakes to supply enough fish to meet the existing big local and global demand of fresh water fish. Archaeologists say that Lake Victoria is one of the youngest lakes globally at 40,000 years of age.
At the time of independence, Uganda’s population was approximately 6,000,000 and people depended on fish from the lake. Sixty years down the road our population is close to 50 million and should we still expect to continue depending on the same lake for fish, really?
A quick Google search indicates that Egypt, which is the leading source of fish in Africa and 12th in the world, currently produces two million tonnes of fish annually. Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania geographically own Lake Victoria which supplies water to Egypt, a desert country. Of the three East African countries Tanzania is the leading producer of fish at about 400,000 tonnes, followed by Uganda at about 380,000 tonnes, and Kenya at about 160,000 tonnes. The pertinent question that we must ask is why Egypt which depends on our fresh water produces far more fish than all the East African countries put together?
Egypt farms fish and we too must think seriously about fish farming instead of thinking that we will always depend on fish hunting in our water bodies. Over exploitation of our lakes leads to reduced fish populations, water pollution, and massive fish deaths.
Mr Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist,
