BONYO: Lake Victoria deserves to breathe too

It has been reported widely, the death of thousands of fish under cage farming in Lake Victoria. Farmers are losing millions of shillings as the fish spoil away.

According to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, the fish in sections of Lake Victoria have been dying due to suffocation. The institute, in a number of media interviews, confirms that low oxygen levels are caused by a natural phenomenon called potted upwelling.

This, it adds, occurs where changes in wind direction affect the currents in the lake, causing the mixing of the deep waters with waters from the surface on sections of the lake. As a result, residents of towns such as Kisumu and Homa Bay as well as those living along the lakeshore have for the last one month bore pungent smell from the lake.

The researchers further attribute this to over 8,000 acres of decomposed water hyacinth and other aquatic plants, that are also being swept from the lake floor and floating near the surface.

However, as the residents and fisherfolk are not ‘breathing,’ the lake must also be allowed to breath. Nam Lolwe (Lake Victoria) is chocking.

Cage fish farming has been a hit in recent years. It has been a cash cow for many businessmen and women. The going joke around the lake has been ‘pesa nitie e nam,’ loosely translating to ‘there is money in the lake.’

With this rally call, thousands of cages today dot Lake Victoria. A drone shot at either Homa Bay Pier, or Ogal Beach in Seme, Kisumu County, best illustrates this. It is estimated that the Kenyan portion of the lake shared by its neighbours plays host to close to 10,000 cages.

While the practice has been a source of income and meeting the growing demand for fresh water lake fish locally, it is time to press reset. The unfortunate events of the lake should provide a silver lining through proper planning and the introduction of cages in the lake.

In 2020, the government put a halt to the introduction of more fish cages in the lake. Outgoing PS in the State Department of fisheries, aquaculture, and the blue economy, Prof. Japheth Ntiba, at the time said the cages were causing pollution in the lake.

Of course, this was met with protests with farmers asking the government to instead generate policies to guide cage fish farming. They further urged the state to deal with the illegal fishing that continues to date in the lake.

The events of the last month, though unrelated to lake pollution, we must all agree, gives an opportunity to do better. Cage fish farming seems to have replaced the wild and natural fish production in the lake.

Environmental and fisheries experts also indicate that as the cages take over the lake, we are likely to lose completely or see a reduced number of important fish species.

Therefore, it is important that as we commiserate with these hardworking farmers and lake entrepreneurs, a deep, careful but important conversation around cages in the lake must happen.

Regulations must be developed and adhered to for the sake of the natural and wild reproduction of fish.