DEVELOPMENT: Reviving Fishing along Uganda, Congo Border

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Juakali Kambale

KINSHASA, Feb 3 2003 (IPS) - Plans to revive fishing in Lake Edward and Lake Albert, which straddle the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda border, are underway.

The 15-million-U.S.-dollar project, initiated by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), an inter-governmental body representing all countries through which the Nile River flows, is part of the body’s ”Common Vision Programme” for communities living along the river.

The NBI is based in Entebbe, Uganda.

The Abidjan-based African Development Bank (ADB), which pledged the funds, sent a mission, led by Ken Johm, to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Jan 26-30 to make preliminary contacts with officials and fishing operators.

In Kinshasa, Johm met non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in fishing on the two lakes. ”We no longer take the same approach as those major financial institutions, who do all their planning in air-conditioned offices in Paris, New York, or Washington without ever setting foot on the sites where the projects will take place,” said Johm. ”Instead, we favour a more participative approach with grass-roots groups.”

In December, the bank met with Ugandan fishing groups in Entebbe, and also made a site visit to the Ugandan side of both lakes. In discussions with fishermen, the delegation asked how working conditions might be improved so that productivity would go up.

After Uganda, the delegation travelled to Kinshasa with Ugandan fishing operators to meet with the Congolese authorities and discuss security conditions on the two lakes on the DRC side.

”We now feel satisfied that despite the delicate political situation, the fishing sites are accessible and we will be able to visit them during our next trip,” says Samba Bocary Tounkara, an ADB official.

The two lakes, on the DRC side, are both located in Congolese rebel territory. ”Besides the daily risks they take, the fishermen complained about the obsolescence or the total absence of fishing equipment,” notes Dieudonne Kakura, a fishing expert at the National Centre for Development, a non-governmental organisation, in Kinshasa.

”The access routes to Lake Albert are impassable since they were not maintained during six years of continuous war. Fishing, which had already reached a semi-industrial level prior to the war, has now become a cottage industry again or a subsistence activity, since we have no market for our products,” he complains.

Kakura also brought up the anarchy, which reigns at the fishing sites, since the government has no fishing laws. ”Fishermen do not even respect spawning areas,” he laments. ”This impacts negatively on productivity and on the quality of fish.”

Lake Albert has always been Congo’s main supplier of fish. According to available statistics, productivity has decreased by nearly 40 percent since 1996, when the first civil war erupted in Congo. That year, President Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown and Laurent Desire Kabila rose to power.

Lake Edward, which is located in the middle of Virunga National Park, has supplied fish not only to Congolese consumers but also to Rwandan refugees since the war and genocide wrecked their country in 1994. ”Lake Edward was already over-fished before those unhappy incidents,” says Amedee Kirarahumu of the National Centre for Development.

”From 16,000 tonnes in 1986, production dropped to 13,000 in 1990 and to 8,000 in 1992. Now, in addition to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, Lake Edward also feeds Rwandans,” he adds. ”Altogether, the lake feeds a total of nearly six million people.”

The high demand in the two Congolese provinces has forced businesspeople to import fish from Mwanza, on Lake Victoria, in Tanzania. Jean Futa, the Congolese minister of economy, who received the ADB delegation, rejoiced that the bank was again showing interest in the DRC after a ten-year absence.

”With relations improving between Uganda and the DRC (Kinshasa has accused Uganda of supporting Congolese rebels), there are real chances that this project will come off as planned. The Congolese government is going to put all its effort into seeing it through, but in our humble opinion and at first glance, the funding for the project is inadequate to bring both lakes up to par. This is one aspect that might need re-evaluation,” says Futa.

The Nile Basin Initiative comprises Uganda, the DRC, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt.