Fish farmers suffer as hyacinth chokes Lake Victoria

Some of 600 private fish cages in Lake Victoria's Anyanga beach in Usenge, Siaya County. Public and private patnrship projects in fish caging is fast revolutionizing the decades of underutilized Lake Victoria's potential. (Photo: Denish Ochieng/ Standard)

Fish farmers across Nyanza are grappling with losses as the stubborn water hyacinth continues to spread along the shores of Lake Victoria.

Whereas the biting drought has continued to dry the ponds, forcing many farmers to harvest fish prematurely, the stubborn weed has dealt a blow to those practising cage farming on the lake.

Farmers said they had emptied the ponds and would only restock them once the rains came.

Damaris Awino, a farmer in Nyakach, said she was forced to harvest two of her ponds prematurely when the stream supplying water ran dry.

"They were about three months away and I had to compromise on two to get enough water for the third one," she said.

She has introduced a floating water weed on the pond to keep it cool and protect the fish from the scorching sun.

Kenneth Omondi, a large-scale farmer in Siaya, said he had put pond farming on hold until the May rains.

"My source of water ran dry and the ponds were short of oxygen. I had to destock," he said.

Mr Omondi, a fisheries consultant, also has 120 fish cages at Usigu and Sakwa beaches. He expressed concerned about the effects of the hyacinth.

Recent studies have warned that the weed, which has carpeted the shores where the farmers have their cages, will continue to multiply.

"The weed chokes the oxygen supply, make feeding difficult. In some instances, it carries disease," said Omondi. "When the oxygen supply is low, it is recommended that you starve the fish. As a consequence, if the weed persists, some fish end up dying."

Omondi said whenever hyacinth marooned a cage and strong winds came, the cage risked being swept offshore.

Several farmers in the Winam Gulf ventured into cage farming as stocks in the open lake dropped. But they are now staring at losses if the weed is not dealt with.

Fisheries Executive Henry Obade said several ponds dug under the 2008 Economic Stimulus Programme, and which the county had restocked, had dried up.