A Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) Senior lecturer in Geography and Economics Department, Dr Emiliana Mwita has urged the fishermen in Somanga, Kilwa district of Lindi region to use the skills they have to help the society around them and the government in preserving the environment.
Dr Mwita made the call recently when she was handing over the Global Positioning System (GPS) to Somanga fishermen to assist their coral planting activities that will enable an increase in fish in the sea.
The GPS was handed over after DUCE visited the fishermen's activities in Mwamba Fisi and witnessed the challenges they faced.
"We are handing over this GPS to help them in their wealth production activities. They have shown great patriotism for their country and are doing activities to help deal with climate change by volunteering without waiting for the government to do it for them," said Dr Mwita.
She noted that before handing over GPS they used it with fishermen when surveying the sea to see the activities of planting corals and found that the GPS is very important.
"Today we set where we started and we have been able to go one kilometre from where they go to take the corals and plant them," said Dr Mwita, adding it is a big area so we have seen the challenges, especially when using canoes.
She said that the community has become an example because it has been able to know the problems they face and solve them together. She added although they are researchers (DUCE), they have learned a lot and continue to learn more from the Somanga people.
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On his part, a Somanga fisherman, Mr Hamis Basha who also used to teach other fishermen, commended DUCE for providing them with the equipment as well as funds to enable them to fulfill their duties to fight climate change.
He said that they cannot hide the knowledge they have from other people since they want to catch fish and do business. Once they hide knowledge, it may cause the fish from other areas to decline, where they will come to compete with them at Kilwa.
"This education really cannot be greedy. For example, if fish are missing from here (Kilwa) or other places, fishermen cannot rest because it is their business. They will be struggling on the islands and other places so that they can earn income and so they can reach Kilwa where we will strive to catch each other. So, we are ready to provide education to our colleagues who want so that fish can reproduce in abundance," Basha said.
