By Omar Bah
Musa Yalli Ousainou Batchilly, leader of the Gambia Action Party has challenged the government to revisit Gambia’s fishing agreements as fish scarcity hits the country.
Markets in the country currently suffer a prolonged shortage of fish supply for domestic consumption. Fish has been so expensive that D100 can only earn you 4 small fishes.
“We challenge the president to revisit the fishing agreements he had with China, EU and Senegal to end the suffering of our people. We are very much aware of the fishing trawlers in our waters catching every fish they come across,” Batchilly told The Standard.
The GAP leader said this has caused fish scarcity but “a clueless government watches from the fringes. For example, the Chinese collect our bonga fish to feed their pigs, and the tuna fish to strengthen their economy at the expense of our crumbling economy.”
“We are concerned about the wellbeing of the people with regard to the scarcity of fish in the country. The average Gambian cannot afford to eat fish anymore. This is unacceptable for a country that is blessed with a massive river,” he said.
He continued: “The Gambia has less livestock that can sustain the public consumption and the cost attached is not equally affordable. Despite this our government continues to mortgage our entire river to foreign powers in exchange for vanity.”
“A government under the leadership of GAP, shall use the river for the benefit of all. We shall use the water in distillation, desalination and filtration processes for human consumption and for export to generate income to the economy. We shall equally exploit the river for fishing that will be processed through smoking, drying and freezing to remedy starvation among our people and for export. Our indefatigable youths shall be given the opportunity to provide fishing gears and trawlers that will also boost the employment rate among the youths,” he said.
