Africa-Press – Tanzania. The Ministry of livestock and Fisheries wants a quick pace of construction for a new fish market in Kasanga Ward in Kalambo district along Lake Tanganyika.
The Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Mr Mashimba Ndaki thus directed the Kalambo District Council Executive Director Mr Shafi Mpenda to hasten allocating another area for the construction at the market along the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika.
The minister issued the directive after touring the current Kasanga Modern Market area and saw the whole facility submerged due to rising of water level in Lake Tanganyika, which started last October.
“Unfortunately the facility has been submerged. There is no way out tha to construct a new one. “I’m directing DED to hasten finding another area so that the government can start construction of a new facility immediately. The government has sufficient funds for the project,” Mr Ndaki said.
Also, he told fishermen who want to export fish in neighbouring Zambia to follow proper procedures by involving people and companies licensed for exporting fish instead of smuggling them out. The market located at Kasanga Ward along the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika started its operations last March after staying idle for nearly nine years since completion.
In the 2020/21 budget the ministry allocated over 78m/- for minor renovation of the current facility which stayed idle since 2011. The 802.4m/- submerged market was constructed from a fund mainly from European Union (EU) and was officially opened by the then Vice President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal in 2011.
A cross-section of fishermen at the area expressed their worries that if situation persist would push them back to square A, nine years ago, when they were forced to sell fish to the neighbouring Zambia at low prices because they had no choice. The facility was turned into white elephant for nine years due lack of a cold room since there were no electricity.
However, after fixing the power problem last March the market was submerged six months after went into operation due to climate change challenges. A fisherman Adam Mkoma said currently there have left with no option than to sell their fish to processing factories in Mpulungu Township on Zambian side.
“It is disappointing as for the past last years those big factories on Zambian side were benefiting because we did not have had modern fish facility for preserving fishes” he said.
Some 70,000 people living in the villages closer to the modern fish market engage in fishing activities and annually they produce more than 170,000 tons of fishes.
