Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:57:08 +0000
By JACK MAPAPAYI
ABOUT K30,000 is required to restock fish fingerlings at Solwezi Aquaculture Research Centre which was washed away by flash floods the district experienced over the weekend.
This came to light when North Western Province minister Richard Kapita inspected the facility to ascertain the extent of damage.
According to assistant aquaculture officer Matthias Lungu about K38,000 worth of fingerlings of different species meant for Chavuma district under the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) Zambezi district Scaling Up nutrition (SUN) project was lost while the other valued at K50,000 was for local farmers.
“As we speak now, we don’t have any fish left and the farmers including the CEEC and SUN projects that are waiting for the stock for over a month now are stuck,” he said.
He said if the programme was to restart, there was need to source for about K30, 000 to acquire brood stock which will start breeding.
And Mr Kapita described the washing away of the fingerlings by as sad especially that Government was encouraging farmers to diversify into fish farming.
He said Zambia was importing about 70 percent of its fish, adding that the Solwezi Research Centre would have helped in closing the gap had it not been for the floods.
“I will engaged my counterpart in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries so that we see how the project can be revamped,” he said.
Solwezi Aquaculture Research Centre has 10 earthen and 10 concrete ponds, bringing the total to 20.
And Mr Kapita has accused Solwezi Municipal Council of contributing to the plight of families who were victims of floods in Solwezi over the weekend.
The provincial minister wondered why the local authority could allocate residential plots in swampy areas.
‘’We are so luck no life was lost because that could have easily happened, you saw that the water levels were up to bed level and anything could have happened. And a health hazard has been created,’’ he said.
