BY ANNIE ZULU, Siavonga
As a fisherman in Siavonga District of Southern Province Zambia, Arnold Nyambe 44, depends on the resources of the Lake Kariba to provide for his wife and seven children. It is how he has earned his income for over 15 years; by taking to the waters for several hours everyday.
However, the water levels have decreased and yield has become low in the past few years, forcing Mr Nyambe to travel longer distances on the lake in search of fishes for a good catch. This is making his livelihood and that of his fellow fishers more difficult.
“Fishing is now a challenge, we don’t get as much fish as we used to some years ago. We only get the most during the rainy season when water levels get high. Sadly, in the dry season fishers who can’t afford mechanised boats have to paddle far into the waters for many hours before getting some catch and some of them end up loosing their lives on the lake,” Mr Nyambe said.
More than 20 percent of animal protein intake for people in Zambia is from fish, according to a World Bank report, hence there is an important role of fish products in the food and nutrition security of the Zambian population, especially the urban poor and people living with HIV and AIDS.
A local fish trader Sandra Hakalima told this reporter that most people regardless of social status enjoy fish.
Ms Hakalima said even with unfavourable weather conditions experienced sometimes, it was important to always have enough stock and at affordable prices.
“Fish must be available, because people love it and it is affordable. Both the rich and the poor at least afford to buy even Kapenta (small whitebait type fish), we wish prices could be reduced even further so that everyone can have it,” she said.
The fishers in Siavonga are now forced to come up with strategies to adapt to these changes they are experiencing.
Impact of climate change on fishing
Despite Zambia's rich endowment of water resources, the fisheries sector has only contributed between US$51 and US$135 million per annum to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the years, a World Bank report further states.
This relatively small contribution at the macro level masks important contributions of fish production to the rural economy through employment, earnings and as a source of food.
It is estimated that more than 300,000 people are deriving their livelihood directly as fishers and fish farmers, or indirectly as traders, processors and other service providers.
Although the sector has continuously faced challenges such as illegal fishing and weak governance, climate change impacts have completely changed the game.
With fewer fishes to catch, the livelihood of thousands of small-scale fishers is at risk.
The high Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which drive global climate change has been identified as one of the major reasons for declining of fish on lake Kariba.
Chief Simamba of Siavonga District’s Representative Phanwel Simamba said some of trees around the water bodies in the area have been cut for solid fuel consumption thereby affecting the rain patterns.
Mr Simamba noted that Siavonga has not been receiving enough rainfall for some years and gets extremely hot.
“The fishing industry in Siavonga has gone down drastically, it is not like in our days when we were growing up in the 1970s up to the 1990s when we had enough water and fishers who were mainly the white community made a lot of money because the catches were good.”
“Now a lots of trees have been cut down which is now affecting the weather. Siavonga is hot most of the times and sometimes when you get on the lake, the water is as hot as if its being boiled. There is a temperature for fish, so when its too hot the fish go down deeper and most artisanal fishers don’t have nets that can go 10 meters down,” he said.
Just like Mr Simamba, Siavonga District Council Chairperson Given Kwapu talked about the irritably high temperature in the district as a result of uncontrolled cutting down of trees.
According to him, the temperature gets as high as 43 degrees Celsius.
“When you are coming from Lusaka, just a few kilometres away there is rain but Siavonga has no rain and is very hot, mainly because of cutting down of trees,” Mr Kwapu said.
He however, stressed that the local authority is working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in finding ways of preserving trees.
WWF is an international non-governmental organization that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment.
“I’m happy with the coming in of WWF to partner with us in coming up with ways to mitigate climate change activities,” he said.
Fishers’ new strategies
Zambia ratified the Paris agreement on climate change in 2016 and one of the goals of the agreement is to foster the inclusion of a longer adaptation goal by increasing the ability to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience.
Siavonga Kapenta Fishers Association Chairperson Fined Mutempa said fishers are trying their best to adapt to climate change and sustain their livelihood in their own way.
Mr Mutempa mentioned acquaculture, use of mechanized boats and fishing deeper into the water as some of the strategies being applied by fishers.
“Whether we like it or not, climate change is here. We just have to look for ways to cope with it because we must feed our families, most fishers are now shifting to motorboats, even though they are expensive and not every fisher can afford them, they help a lot. They enable fishers to travel long distances on the water very fast and catch more fish."
“Fishers are also turning to aquaculture, despite the fact that its expensive, so that during the dry season when they can’t catch plenty, they supply fish from ponds,” Mr Mutempa said.
He added that sensitization meetings against bad fishing practices have also continuously been held.
“We have been having meetings with fishers, nobody fishing from the lake is allowed to use chemicals for fishing. Although it was popular before, now it is completely banned because it causes more damage,” he said.
Appeals to Government
Mr Mutempa further observed that fishing has been disturbed by the increased price of fuel.
He implored Government to consider reducing the price of fuel to a favourable one to lessen the challenges faced by fishers.
“Fishing has become expensive because of the high price of fuel. Fishers are trying to use motorboats which use fuel, now they can not catch more fishes because of luck of fuel and this is also affecting the price of fish which is supposed to be low considering that its majority of Zambian’s favourite. The price of fuel has to come down,” he said.
And the local traditional leadership wants Government to come with more programs to encourage acquaculture, especially among the youths and women.
Mr Simamba said it was difficult for Zambians to venture into acquaculture because it was expensive.
“We want to have more Zambians venture into acquaculture, so that they should own development. We hope with the new Government more funds will be allocated to encouraged more youths and women get involved in acquaculture,” he said.
Fishing is not just a livelihood for Siavonga fishers, but it also reflects their cultural identity. This is why they are reluctant to completely abandon it for other options but rather look for strategies to sustain their livelihood.
And even though the climate challenges in the district will remain a persistent threat, and continue to make their livelihood difficult, they remain optimistic about the future, hopeful that every new day will be better than yesterday.
This story was produced under the WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN) Social Impact Reporting Initiative (SIRI) Special Edition on Climate Change. Any views expressed in this story are those of the author and do not represent the views of WIN and its partners.
Great write up
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