Fishermen at Axim in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western\u00a0Region, are calling on the government to provide alternative sources of\u00a0livelihood for the local fishing economy.<\/p>\n
This according to them will help\u00a0reduce the dependence on the dwindling\u00a0fishing\u00a0business.<\/p>\n
Plight of fishermen<\/strong><\/p>\n Fishermen at Axim and other coastal areas in the country, have been hit by\u00a0low fish catch, low supply of premix fuel occasioned by smuggling of the\u00a0product and the high cost of fishing equipment. These problems are\u00a0compounded by bad fishing practices such as pair trawling, light for\u00a0fishing and other chemicals for fishing.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”EZWfEIJHRFBr8okLlzCZ7jYoKWTZ3CDB”]The effect of these problems have been low fish stock and polluted marine\u00a0environment. It has also given rise to unemployment and other social vices\u00a0in some fishing communities. Other problems are that, fish prices at the Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>, the fisher folk at\u00a0Axim suggested that the solution to the problem would be the\u00a0provision of\u00a0other job opportunities in their communities\u00a0for the youth.<\/p>\n \u201cLife in Axim now is unbearable. The fishing business is dwindling by the\u00a0day. We fight over the little catch in order to survive. Many of our youths\u00a0are unemployed. As a result, some have resorted to thievery. They steal Hoarding of premix fuel<\/strong><\/p>\n For fishing communities such as Axim and Dixcove, there are over 600\u00a0fishing boats and canoes of different sizes in each community. Each fishing\u00a0expedition requires at least one drum of premix fuel. But currently, a\u00a0premix fuel tanker made up of 60 drums of the commodity is supplied every\u00a0week to these landing beaches.<\/p>\n Citi News\u2019<\/strong> checks at some depots in Axim and\u00a0Dixcove showed that, about 20 drums from the 60 are given to members of the\u00a0landing beach committees.<\/p>\n Some other unspecified quantities are sold to\u00a0persons who are not\u00a0fishermen. The remaining is then sold to the several\u00a0hundreds of fishermen in queues.<\/p>\n As a result of the huge deficit, some fishermen resort to buying from those\u00a0quantities which were given to the executives at inflated prices.\u00a0Officially, a drum of premix fuel is sold at GH375, but \u201cthose who hoard Politicization of premix fuel sale<\/strong><\/p>\n Some fishermen who spoke to Citi News<\/strong> alleged that the premix committee\u00a0members sell the product to their party colleagues who are loyalists of\u00a0the\u00a0ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). At Dixcove in the Ahanta West \u201cWhen you ask, they will tell you this quantity is for that person. That\u00a0belongs to that man.\u00a0 That also belongs to a Unit Committee Member and a\u00a0whole lot. We are told it is the proceeds from this fuel that they use to\u00a0fund the NDC party here. We don\u2019t understand what is happening here,\u201d one\u00a0fisherman told Citi News<\/strong> at Dixcove.<\/p>\n Social vices occasioned by dwindling fish catch<\/strong><\/p>\n Fishmongers who ply their trade along the beaches complained to Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0that, the dwindling fortunes of fishing has led to an increase in\u00a0thievery among the youth in Axim.<\/p>\n \u201cThey steal soup. They steal fish on fire, head pans, phones and anything\u00a0that come their way. When they steal your phone, they sell them at cheaper\u00a0prices elsewhere. We are unable to have good night sleep because, if you dare do, Government’s supply of outboard motors not the solution<\/strong><\/p>\n President John Dramani Mahama during\u00a0a recent visit to the Western Region, promised fishermen in the country that his government is procuring over\u00a01,000 outboard motors for them. He also mentioned they will supply fishing\u00a0nets and other fishing inputs in his government\u2019s attempt to solve the\u00a0numerous problems facing fishermen.<\/p>\n But a member of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council, Mike Abaka\u00a0Aidoo, noted that, the supply of the fishing inputs will not solve the problems they face.<\/p>\n He opined that \u201cthe problem facing the fishing\u00a0industry is one which has to do with the dwindling fish stock in the sea\u00a0and the pollution in the marine environment. The first step is to work at\u00a0improving the stock in the sea by checking pair trawling, light for\u00a0fishing, the use of monofilament nets and other harmful chemicals used for\u00a0fishing. That is the first step\u201d.<\/p>\n He also questioned the rational for the supply of the outboard motors\u00a0saying \u201chow will fishermen pay back the GH97,000 cost for the outboard\u00a0motors when there are no fishes in the sea to catch. Our attention should\u00a0be on the marine environment and later we look at how to catch the fish\u00a0when there is enough in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fishermen at Axim in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western\u00a0Region, are calling on the government to provide alternative sources of\u00a0livelihood for the local fishing economy. This according to them will help\u00a0reduce the dependence on the dwindling\u00a0fishing\u00a0business. Plight of fishermen Fishermen at Axim and other coastal areas in the country, have been hit by\u00a0low fish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":41627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbeaches have risen astronomically.\u00a0Fishmongers have had to fight over the\u00a0little catch that are brought by fishermen.<\/p>\n
\nsoup, they steal Fufu. They steal fish on fire. We are pleading with the\u00a0government to provide jobs and to diversify our economy,\u201d one fishmonger\u00a0narrated.<\/p>\n
\nthe product sell it to us at GHc600 or sometimes GHc800\u201d a fisherman lamented.<\/p>\n
\nDistrict, some fishermen accused the leadership who are members of the\u00a0Landing Beach Committee of allocating some percentage of the product to\u00a0fund activities of the party. They alleged that those who the premix committee\u00a0sells the product to, are not fishermen, but act as middlemen who\u00a0trade the commodity at higher prices to fund the party.<\/p>\n
\nyour precious belongings may be stolen in the night,\u201d Some fishmongers\u00a0told Citi\u00a0News<\/strong> at Axim.<\/p>\n