Falling lakes shine a light on the
need for concerted efforts to conserve water, ecosystems and human development, JAMES CHAVULA writes.
For nearly 3 500 Malawians at Chisi
Island in Zomba District, Lake Chilwa is almost everything. The population more
than doubles when fish catches are plentiful.
When the fishing community mention
the inland lake near the border between Malawi and Mozambique, they are likely
talking about their livelihoods.
Now they are worried about water
because it is slowly drying up due to persistent drought in southern Africa,
massive deforestation in the catchment, farming too close to rivers and
diversion of the lakes inlets for irrigation.
“Our lives, jobs, trade, transport,
health and education hinge on this lake. It is the main source of food, money,
jobs and peace in our homes. Now we are watching our livelihoods evaporate,”
says group village head Tchuka on the densely populated isle.
Sporadic sights of boats in the
lake. No fish. Few visitors and vehicles in sight. No customers in restaurants
and lodges. Low money circulation on the island and on shore. Life has almost
come to a standstill.
No one is one is allowed to fish in
the lake. Some locals have fled to neighbouring towns as hunger and poverty
deepen, the remnants say.
Desperate times
The Department of Fisheries closes
the lake for three months—from December 1 to February 28—for fish to multiply
freely. But on December1 last year, local beach committees resolved to ban
fishing until March next year hoping the lake will rise again.
“This is a desperate measure
because the fishers’ livelihoods are devastated,” said Nixon Masi, the
officer-in-charge at Kachulu Fisheries Station. “Without fish, how are they
going to feed their families? To reduce the impact of the disaster, we have
also formed community committees to conserve fish in rivers and rocks found in
the lake.”
Doubts are widespread that the
curfew may not improve water levels and fish stocks. The fisher folk wonder how
much water a lake need to keep the fish multiplying?
They have watched catches dwindle
for years, but they now blame themselves for not doing enough to save the lake.
“If this continues, what will they
eat?” asks Maxon Majawa, from Chisi.
The question recurs as chronic
insufficient rains and a breakdown in ecosystem management leaves stressed
parts of the wetlands brittle dry.
Lake Chilwa accounts for some 20 percent of Malawi's fish catch, injecting almost $18.7 million into the economy every year. The basin supports the livelihoods of over one million people who earn $21 million.
Equally fragile are livelihoods of
people on near Lake Malawi, Lake Malonbe and Lake Chiuta. The country’s
fisheries sector is built around the four inland lakes, which play a pivotal
role as a current and future source of food.
According to the Fisheries
Department, they produce almost 45 percent of animal protein and employ more
than 500 000 people in the drought hit country.
The Lake Chilwa basin alone
accounts for almost 20 percent of the countrywide catch, injecting almost$18.7
million into the economy per year. But the benefits of the wetland are
often underestimated though it supports the livelihoods of over one million
people who earn almost $21 million.
The drying of rivers, dams, lakes and wetlands in the region and
beyond could be symptomatic of a graver disaster if not kept in check, says
Stockholm International Water Institute executive director Torgny Holmgren.
“Water scarcity has become the norm in many countries and we
might as well be heading for a global crisis unless we work together to
conserve water, ecosystems and human development,” he told almost 3 500
delegates at the World Water Week in Sweden.
The inland lakes being reduced to
cracking crusts and dustbowls are key to a new policy shift to ensure every
person in Malawi eats 12 kilogrammes (kg) per year by 2020. The annual fish
consumption has slumped from 14kg per person to 8kg since the 1970s, the Nation
Fisheries Policy indicates.
Tracking the threats against the
second-largest source of fish in Malawi, one easily comes close to a complex
blame game and tales of unsustainable use of natural resources worsened by
competing interests of fishers and farmers.
Beach communities accuse farmers in
neighbouring marshes, riverbanks and irrigation schemes of interrupting the
flow of water into the lake which dried in 1995 and lost almost 60 percent of
its water in 2012. However, counter-accusations have it that the fishing
communities could be paying a price for wiping out the forest cover since
firewood is the widely source of energy for drying fish.
But even groups of businesswomen
who own solar tents that accelerate the drying of fish without putting trees in
smoke are also hit hard.
The solar driers are empty and some
of them are paying extra costs travelling to Mangochi on the southern shoreline
of Lake Malawi to order fish.
“No one is safe from these effects
of climate change. We erected the solar tent to stop using open fires to dry
fish, but it is just lying idle. We have no fish to dry. Life isn’t easy,”
says Ethel Kabwelebwele, the chairperson for Kachulu Women Fish Processors
in Zomba
Tough times ahead if...
Lake Chilwa Water Basin, like the
Elephant Marsh in Nsanje, is a protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention.
The loss of water has also adversely affected the paddies where growers bemoan
dwindling rice yields.
But the worst impact is clear as
one approaches the lake.
The shallow edges of the lake have
been replaced by a growing parched land that keeps cracking under the scorching
sun. A footpath running parallel to a murky canal splits the parched
stretch, taking people from Kachulu to Chisi Island. The man-made channel is
narrow and shallow. Engine boats that once transported passengers to Chisi in
15 minutes or less no longer go there. Scores of them are rusting in the sun.
Only bamboo canoes, worth K2 000 per trip, sail on the man-made channel. Now,
the 15-minutes trip took four times longer.
This slows transportation of people
and goods from the mainland. Chisi Health Centre is struggling to
transport essential drugs and critical patients to Zomba Central Hospital
because vehicles seldom come to Kachulu because there is no fish anymore,
residents and health workers say.
“We need to take the issue of
conservation of surface water and the environment seriously. When fishing
hotspots are threatened by climate change and environmental
degradation, the consequences are not felt by the fishers only, but the whole
supply chain: boats, restaurants, lodges, fishmongers, processors and many
others all the way to the nutrition of people in towns where the fish is sold,”
says Professor Sosten Chiotha, the regional director of Leadership for
Environment and Development in South and East Africa (Lead-Sea) which
spearheads the Lake Chilwa Climate Change Adaptation Programme.
 |
| Chiotha waks on the dry stretch in August 2018 |
A crisis postponed
Chiotha wants an end for business
as usual: “Lake Chilwa isn’t
the only water body drying up globally. I have been to Lake Chad which lost 90
percent of its water. In Lake Naivasha, Kenya, it is the same situation.
“We need to conserve ecosystems and
riverbanks. We must address natural resources management and diversification of
sources of livelihoods to ensure people who lose business due to impacts of
climate change have viable alternative to fishing.”
In 1996, the environmental
specialist, based at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, was among
experts who conducted an inquiry into the drying of the lake in 1995.
Looking back, he says: “The country
only postponed a problem by scratching the surface and not fully implementing
similar recommendations the experts made 22 years ago. We needed to seriously
conserve the ecosystem that time.”
As Lake Chilwa runs dry, the water is
turning greenish. Chiotha attributes this to an infestation of algae thriving
on what “inflows of fertilisers from crop fields” dotting the wetland.
With dry parts of Lake Chilwa
cracking like broken china, GVH Tchuka urges the locals to do join hand to
avert a worse crisis.
Says the traditional leader: “We
need to do something about it. Without water, we are doomed.”
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