Fishermen at Katosi landing site in Mukono, have expressed fear of looming poverty due to scarcity of fish coupled with a drop in prices of fish during lockdown.
The few fishermen at the landing are also stranded with their catch, especially the silver fish dealers due to lack of market. We have the details
A visit to Katosi landing site in Mukono district clearly shows that business activity at the once busy fish mart has gone down following the 42 days lockdown.
Hundreds of boats are docked at the shores because many of the fishermen have vacated the place.
Gonja Fred a fisherman says that they do not know how they will survive during the 42 days lockdown. As a result, cases of theft have gone up at the landing site since many of the youth have since been rendered jobless and thus cannot sustain themselves.
” A number of youth at the landing site depend on the lake doing various jobs but now there is no work and this has resulted to theft in the area;” said Gonja.
At cape, a place commonly for drying silver fish has turned into a grazing area for animals because people have deserted the area.
Baker Maganda, the chairperson of silver fish dealers at cape, says that their surplus silverfish have started rotting in stores because traders are not able to access the landing site.
Ruth Namaganda, the fisheries inspector at Katosi landing site, notes that much as fish is scarce, the prices have also gone down.
Namaganda however attributes the fish scarcity to the massive fish kills that occurred in Kalangala in January and the heavy wave actions on the lake.
“Currently a kilo of tilapia that was initially sold between Shs15, 000 and Shs18, 000, shillings has dropped to 10,000 shillings while a basin of silver fish has also dropped from 45,000 to 20,000 shillings;” said Namaganda.