TMA, EMEDO team up to prevent fishers from drowning

DAR ES SALAAM: THE Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) has forged partnership with the Environmental Management and Economic Development Organisation (EMEDO) to provide fishers with weather forecast information to prevent drowning.

Under the partnership, the organisation will be providing small scale fishermen in Lake Zone regions with the daily weather forecast from the TMA so that they become aware of the weather condition of the particular day before getting into Lake Victoria waters to fish.

The EMEDO has partnered with the TMA through its Lake Victoria Drowning Prevention Project which covers districts of Nyamagana and Ukerewe in Mwanza, Muleba in Kagera and Musoma DC in Mara.

The aim of this project is to influence change of mindset, behaviour and practice that leads into drowning incidents for fishers.

The main targeted groups of the project are fishers, children and women fish processors.

“We believe that when fishers get informed about bad weather condition before going to fish it would prevent accidents of their fishing boats or dhows,” stated EMEDO’s Project Manager, Arthur Mgema, on Tuesday, this week, during a media training workshop in Dar es Salaam.

He noted that the project came after the organisation had done situational analysis of drowning in communities around Lake Victoria.

The analysis established that the Beach Management Units (BMU) have not been tough on ensuring that fishers have the safety tools such as life jackets.

“Even those who have life jackets they rarely wear them, reasoning that the jackets do not make them flexible to cast fish nets into water. The small-scale fishermen were also not getting weather information, particularly those in peripheral areas,” he stated.

In her welcoming remarks, EMEDO’s Executive Director Editrudith Lukanga, stated that since Tanzania has been blessed with abundant water bodies, the issue of marine safety is paramount.

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Ms Lukanga noted that the organisation and other stakeholders will use this year’s World Drowning Prevention Day, which is celebrated annually on July 25, to raise awareness on prevention.

“We collaborate with the TMA because it issues weather information, but how such information reaches the communities and how the communities respond it needs involvement of different stakeholders,” she argued.

TMA’s Public Relations Manager, Monica Mutoni, called for effective engagement of the journalists in spreading public awareness on drowning prevention in the country.