Lake nyasa
Territorial dispute sinks local fishing on lake
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The Malawian government has awarded a second
largest exploration license to a South African company, SacOil Holdings
Limited, to begin drilling oil in the disputed Lake Nyasa.
The license was issued at the end of December last
year well after the Tanzania government had told the Malawian government
to halt the process and give room for talks between the two
governments.
Initially the Malawian government had issued a
license to a British-based company, Surestream Petroleum, to search for
oil and gas in Africa’s third largest lake.
However, oil companies have yet to begin drilling
and are still exploring the centre of the lake, which has been cordoned
off, according to IPS.
The dispute between both southern African countries
reignited when Malawi awarded exploration licenses to Surestream
Petroleum in 2011 to search for oil and gas on Lake Malawi.
Intervening, Tanzanian authorities told Surestream
Petroleum to immediately postpone any planned drilling on the lake until
the dispute was resolved. But Malawi remained defiant, reports IPS.
Last month, both countries presented their position
papers after agreeing that the dispute would be mediated by the
Southern African Development Community former heads of state, also known
as the African Forum.
"We agreed with Tanzania that we will hand over the
mediation to the African Forum and so far we have both presented our
position papers.
A mediation process should commence before the end
of this month or earlyMarch," Malawi's Secretary for Foreign Affairs and
International Co-operation, Patrick Kabambe, told IPS.
The wrangle deepened when last November Tanzania
published a new map indicating the boundary between her and Malawi to
fall on the middle of the lake.
Malawi claims sovereignty over the entirety of the
29,600-square-kilometre lake that straddles the borders of Malawi,
Mozambique and Tanzania.
Tanzania, for its part, says 50 percent is part of its territory.
Meanwhile, fishing on the lake is reportedly
dwindling drastically due to the dispute, beyond the normal decline
experienced every year.
The lake has been witnessing a decline in fish
stocks from 30,000 metric tonnes a year to just 2,000 tonnes over the
last 20 years, according to a recent Ministry of Agriculture report read
in parliament this February.
Villagers across either sides of the lake complain
that the dispute is making it difficult for them to fish from the lake
that is common to them.
Since he was nine years old, Martin Mhango from
Karonga village in northern Malawi, said he has known no other
livelihood than fishing.
And for the last 33 years he has been fishing
freely on Lake Malawi - that is, until last October when he claims he
was detained by people claimed to be Tanzanian security forces.
He had been fishing on both sides of the lake for years, he said, just as Tanzanian fisherfolk did.
After the October incident, Mhango has been careful
not to venture into the waters on the Tanzanian side, which has
affected his livelihood.
A reduced catch has lowered his income from over 286 dollars per month to just 142 dollars.
Josiah Mwangoshi, 52, remembers belonging to two
villages when he was growing up - one on the Malawian side and another
on the Tanzanian side.
"My village is right along Songwe River and I
remember that when the river used to shift its course, we would migrate
to the Tanzanian side and later on return to the Malawian side when the
river shifted again," Mwangoshi told IPS.
"I can no longer live and fish on the Tanzanian
side where I also have a family, because it's now clear that the dispute
is very deep," he said.
But Tanzanian High Commissioner to Malawi, Patrick
Tsere, commenting said that no Malawian fisherfolk have ever been
harassed in Tanzanian territorial waters.
"Tanzania's security forces have never engaged in
such behaviour. It's rather us who have been worried that Malawian
planes have been seen flying into Tanzania territory without our
permission," Tsere told IPS.
Many believe that the row over the lake has the potential to worsen if significant oil and gas is discovered.
"This dispute has been around for over 50 years but
it has heightened and entered the public domain now because of the
potential of oil and gas discoveries," Udule Mwakasungura, the executive
director for the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, a Malawian
NGO, told IPS.
"Lake Malawi contains more than 2,000 different
fish species -- our worry is that oil exploration and its subsequent
drilling will affect the fresh water ecosystem," he added.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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