There is disquiet between fishermen and fishmongers at Abuesi, a fishing community in the Shama District of the Western Region as the fish mongers bare their teeth at what they describe as being sidelined in the distribution of food supplies from the Fisheries Ministry meant to sustain fisherfolk during the closed sea.
A symbolic closure of the sea in Ghana was held at Upper Dixcove in the Ahanta West Municipality of the Western Region on July 1 by the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson.
The supplies include bags of rice, cooking oil and tin fish.
As has been her tradition, the Minister began distributing food supplies along the coastal communities to the fishers to help sustain them during this period.
It is the supply to Abuesi in the Shama District that is on the verge of dividing the community. Whilst the chief fisherman, Nana Konduah V insists that this initial supply is meant for only the fishermen, the women are demanding to be included since they all depend on the sea for sustenance.
Chanting war songs, the women mobilized themselves at the Chief Fisherman’s house where the food was being shared among the men.
“They are sharing the rice among the men. The men at the beach are 90 and the total bags of rice they received was around 200. They need to include those of us who smoke fish at the beach, so we can also feed our children.“
“I find it difficult to understand how some are receiving rice to the detriment of others when the closure of the sea has rendered all of us unemployed for the month. I am a widow with children. Only God will sustain us. Why should only the men receive food?”
“We can’t understand this. We will demonstrate in protest”, they protested one after the other.
Meanwhile, the Chief Fisherman is calling on the sector minister to expedite action in catering to the women to ensure peace prevails.
“The pressure is too much, as you can see. I will plead with the minister (Mavis Hawa Koomson) to quickly send the share for the women as she does every year, so that there will be peace”.
“In fact, the complaints are too much, the pressure is too much and the food that they brought, I can’t give them because the canoes are quite a lot, so I am pleading with the Minister to come to the aid of the women as she has been doing,“ he said.
Source:
3news.com
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