Lake Ngami fishermen face another eviction

In an interesting turn of events, relocated Lake Ngami fishermen who were told to fish at other areas following the fishing ban at the lake are facing another eviction from those areas as residents complain of swelling sanitation problems.

The Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, issued a fishing ban at Lake Ngami for a year following environmental pollution concerns and the fishermen were told to fish at other areas such as the Okavango Delta, Thamalakane and Kunyere rivers.

The fishermen now find themselves in a desperate situation as they are not welcome in the new localities. Residents complain that the fishermen camp on river shores without having consulted community leaders and that they make the rivers very unsightly. Residents have also expressed fear that if the situation continued unabated, the sanitation situation may resemble that found at Lake Ngami.

The Botswana Gazette spoke to one resident, Semumu Samaxa, who resides at Xhobe Settlement in the outskirts of Maun who said the fishermen were a concern and noted that the river is drying and the fishermen worsen the situation as they splash water from the river through the high boat traffic. “These fishermen also scare away hippopotamus from the river forcing them into our farms where they destroy crops and pose danger to people,” he said
Read more at http://www.gazettebw.com/di-mashis-rise-to-the-top/

Lake Ngami fishing industry a ' lawless Wild West'

The Senior Research Fellow for  Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis, reported that the Ngamiland fishing industry has become the lawless “Wild West” of Botswana and the government needs to act before the next fishing season begins at the end of this month. In 2010, the Tahal group presented a bold idea to the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture, that part of the 420 mcum of water that would be taken from the Zambezi as part of the country’s riparian rights would be used for an integrated agricultural project which would include maize, soy and canola industries in Pangematenga which would in turn be used to develop an industrial poultry export industry as well as an aquaculture industry that would export some 13 000 tonnes of fish per annum.


The fish that would have been exported would include tilapia and catfish but the very idea that Botswana, a landlocked semi-desert would become a major exporter of fish products was just a step too far. Successful public officials are described with many adjectives, but certainly bold is not one them. This idea of a Botswana fish export sector was simply beyond the pale for those in the Ministry of Agriculture and the idea was just too bold, too risky and was canned.


But now, without a litre of water being abstracted from the Zambezi and without even much investment, Botswana is silently becoming a significant exporter of unknown quantities of tilapia and catfish to water rich countries like Zambia and the democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).The interesting question is how and why.

Read more at: http://www.ngamitimes.com/2015/02/lake-ngami-fishing-industry-a-lawless-wild-west/