News
Pity the freshwater fishermen of the NWP
View(s):Pix and text by Jayaratna Wickremaarachchi
While heavy rains lashed the south and west of the country triggering floods and landslides, the north western province is still bearing the brunt of the drought.
The Puttalam district of the NWP is among one of the worst affected areas of the province.
Farmers have suffered crop loss and the inland fisheries industry has been brought to a near standstill. Many of the fishermen who depend on tank fishing for a livelihood have been forced to seek alternate forms of employment. Families whose income is based on fishing at the Thabowa and Karuwalagaswewa tanks have seen their catch severely affected with the number of fish in the two tanks drastically reduced.
They claim the catch has reduced and the fish harvested much smaller in size.
Usually fresh stocks of fish are released into the tanks to ensure a better harvest and ensure propagation of stocks maintained. But with dwindling water supply in the tanks this has not been possible.
Many of the affected fishermen have now been forced to depend on rations provided by the state under drought relief programmes. Tank fishermen in the northern, north central and eastern provinces, where drought conditions exist too face a similar situation.
Fish farmers under the Thabowa and Karuwalagaswewa tanks are now dependent on government drought relief
The catch is insufficient for the fishermen to make ends meet
The catch has been drastically reduced and the size of the fish much smaller
The tanks are drying up and so are stocks of fish
The buyers are plentiful but the catch insignificant
A fish farmer looks despairingly at his tiny catch