TOGO: Artisanal fishers in distress

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In Togo, fishing is almost exclusively an artisanal activity. However, the sector lacks recognition and support by the authorities. Stakeholders feel neglected and much less supported than farmers.

The fishing quay in the port of Lomé looks like a high containment area. It is barely a 45 meters wide pocket handkerchief, where hundreds of pirogues are crammed. Next to it, the fish market where no less than a thousand women operate on a daily basis. Here, fishermen, women fishmongers, vendors and buyers, walk on each other. The same pains, the same complaints, day after day.

Three years ago, the Togolese Government decided and completed, without consultation with stakeholders, the enlargement of the Lomé Autonomous Port, which mainly hosts containers of second hand cars from Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy. This space, of 450 meters long, was previously dedicated to artisanal fisheries activities.

Infuriated by this situation, and by unkept promises of building a new fishing port, the fishermen and women have a strong grievance against a Government which they feel is not listening to them, and does not take into account their concerns. Nobody tells them anything, they say. Most fishermen and women working at the fishing port of Lomé don’t even know who is the Director of Fisheries, although it is the same person who has been occupying this position since the creation of this directorate in 2012.

Photo: Inoussa Maïga

It is Friday afternoon, October 30, 2015, and we are holding a meeting with the artisanal fishing stakeholders in the fishing port of Lomé. The Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Dr. Christian Domtani Ali, has been invited. He confirmed his presence just a few hours before the meeting, but, finally, he does not come. We tried to reach him by phone, in vain. “We were sure that he was not going to come. These people never put a foot here”, says a voice in the crowd.

Behind the weary looks and the stony faces, there is deep anger. Women let off steam first and recite a long string of constraints. “You can see by yourselves how our space is so limited with the building of the Autonomous Port third dock. It has eaten up a big part of the fishing port. Our pirogues are stuck to each other, and this is causing enormous damage. Waves destroy our pirogues as they collide with each other. You can also see the poor conditions in this place, there is no hygiene”, says Benissa Alberta, a woman fishmonger. The cleaning of the fishing port is entrusted by the State to a private contractor. But for several weeks now, the gutters have been clogged and the evacuation of waste water is impossible; it stagnates on the concrete. The stench is unbearable.

Next to take the floor is Vero Avoulete, also a woman fishmonger. She deplores especially the high cost of fishing inputs in Togo. “Nets are so very expensive, fuel as well. Outboard engines, we almost can’t find any. There is only one company that sells engines in Togo. This makes the price very high. We are obliged to turn to financial institutions to ask for credit. But because of the poor sales of fish, we are constantly indebted. Meanwhile, all the State programs are devoted to agriculture. Fishing is completely neglected in Togo”, hammers the fishmonger, visibly angry.

Photo: I. Maïga

Evi Koffi, a fisherman, denounces the reduction of fishing zones due to the proliferation of commercial vessels. “Before, there were not so many boats at sea. Nowadays, these big vessels are so numerous that it prevents us from going fishing in some of our places. We are told that we shouldn’t cause insecurity for these vessels. Our fishing area has shrunk tremendously”, he explains. His pirogue was destroyed after a collision with one of these commercial vessels. “It’s been 6 six months that my pirogue was damaged, and, ever since, I have not been able to work. There is no one I can speak to for solving my problem”.

Standing in the crowd, very quiet, Ahoedo Kossi, Head of the Section for the Promotion of Fisheries at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Directorate, recognizes that the situation of the fishing port poses a serious problem. “But we haven’t remained idle. The Government has requested the support of the Japanese cooperation to build a new fishing port. It will be at about one kilometer from here. It will be much better equipped than the former port. We are now at the stage of the feasibility study for the project. What we are asking is for them to wait, to be patient. We cannot do otherwise”, he tells us. He adds that he counts on us to convey the message to the fishermen.

Emmanuel Gkapo, a hook and line fisherman and owner of seven pirogues, asks us to transmit his complaint to his country’s authorities: “the announced construction of the new port must materialize quickly, for our safety, for the safety of our pirogues and for improving our activities”. Approaching us in this way reflects the level of desperation of artisanal fishers, the lack of trust and dialogue with the administration, but also the lack of confidence among fishermen towards their organizations leaders.

Inoussa Maïga

@MaigaInou

Photos: Inoussa Maïga

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