Refresh project donates boats to Salima Council

Restoring Fisheries for Sustainable Livelihoods in Lake Malawi (Refresh) Project has donated two motorised boats and data collecting gadgets worth $100 000 (about K168 million) to Senga Bay Fisheries Research Station in Salima District.

Speaking during the handover on Saturday in Salima, Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change Principal Secretary Yusuf Mkungula said intensifying patrols and inspection on Lake Malawi will restore fish species and curb illegal fishing.

He said through Refresh project in collaboration with his ministry, they developed standard operating procedures for monitoring, controlling and surveillance operations of fisheries inspectorate.

“The standard operating procedures are meant to be followed without failing. Therefore, the fisheries inspectorate should have necessary equipment to execute their duties effectively,” said Mkungula. 

He also said the electronic catch assessment survey system will help the Fisheries Department to migrate from the old paper-based system of entering data.

Refresh project chief of party Daniel Jamu underscored the importance of the fisheries sector and said as one of the drivers of the national economy, a decline in the fish supply poses challenges that can impact the health and nutrition standards of many Malawians.

“The new technology allows for faster consolidation of the data unlike the manual system where data took close to four months to be consolidated and shared,” said Jamu.

Refresh project is funded by the USAid.