By Chinyere Anyanwu [email protected]
Three weeks after tilapia fish farmers in Ebute Afuye Cluster of Epe Local Government Area, Lagos State, lost over 200,000 of their stock, the dust raised by the disaster is yet settle as blame trading lingers.
For starters, the farmers have punctured the claims of Renecon Limited, a sand dredging and marine services company operating in the area, that water hyacinth killed the fishes.
The fish farmers said the claims of Renecon holds no water as it is a calculated attempt to absolve itself of guilt in the disaster.
Speaking exclusively with Daily Sun on behalf of the Epe tilapia fish farmers, the National Vice President of Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria, Nurudeen Tiamiyu, said the dredgers were only trying to exonerate themselves by blaming water hyacinth for the fish deaths.
Tiamiyu stated that water pollution arising from the activities of dredgers was at the root of the massive tilapia deaths. He explained that over time, the farmers have had to complain about the dredgers who are operating less than 500 metres from the fish clusters.
He said, “once they start dredging, the water becomes turbulent and turvy, and the fish can’t eat so their survival becomes very hard. We have complained to the Ministry of Environment.
“Even last year, I spoke to the Permanent Secretary of the Agricultural Resources; she’s retired now. She said she was going to meet with the dredgers but nobody did anything about it. December last year, the same issue happened. And unfortunately, three weeks ago, because nobody told them anything previously, the dredgers brought their dredging activities 200 metres away from the fish farmers.
“They disturbed the whole water body and within 24 hours the fish started dying in thousands. Within 24 hours, over 50,000 had died. Within the next 24 hours, over 100,000 fish had died. Over 200,000 fish were lost by the farmers there.”
Reacting to the claim by Renecon Limited that the death of the fish was caused by the growth of water hyacinth on the water body, Tiamiyu said the fish farmers have been operating in the area since 2008 while the company came there about five years ago.
Tiamiyu, who doubts if proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out by the dredgers before they began operation in the area, said, “I don’t know the kind of EIA they did and the environmental audit they got to arrive at the conclusion that water hyacinth caused the death of the fish.
“Water hyacinth does not kill fish because it doesn’t generate pollution. What it does is to feed on waste in the water. The only thing that happens is that if water hyacinth dies on the water and it’s not evacuated, it goes under the water; that is when there will be issue for the fish because it will deprive the fish of oxygen. Water hyacinth even helps the fish by feeding on the waste in the water that would have harmed the fish. Water hyacinth does not tamper with the fish cages because there’s a barrier it cannot cross to get to where the fish cages are so they (dredgers) are just trying to exonerate themselves. Water hyacinth has been growing on that water body long before the dredgers came but the fish farmers have never experienced this kind of fish mortality before, so nobody should say it’s water hyacinth.”
The National Vice President of Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria noted that, “before a dredging company starts operation, it must have an EIA and if they are writing an EIA, it should be with all the stakeholders in that vicinity.
“Like I said earlier, the fish farmers have been in that place since 2008 while the dredgers came in about five years ago so what kind of EIA did they write that they didn’t know there are fish farmers on that axis where they are dredging? If they had done an EIA, what’s the result of their EA (environmental audit) after starting operations?”
Tiamiyu lamented the heavy losses suffered by the fish farmers, saying, “most of these fish farmers took loans, some N1 million, some N2 million, N3 million, to invest in their business and now that the fish is dead, where are they going to get money to restock and restart?”
Speaking on various efforts by stakeholders to seek mutually acceptable resolution of the issue, Tiamiyu explained that, “the state government, through the Ministry of the Environment, and LASEPA came to carry out some tests and we are supposed to have a meeting with them but the commissioner of environment is interested in the issue so he said they will reschedule the meeting. The Ministry of Mineral Resources in Lagos too is an interested party. They have called the fish farmers and dredgers for a meeting but nothing amicable has been arrived at. We’re still waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture to come out with their own final submission along with the Ministry of the Environment, to see what will happen to the fish farmers; whether they will go to court or they will be compensated out of court.”
About three weeks ago, a viral social media video allegedly circulated by Tilapia fish farmers in Epe had implicated Renecon Limited’s activities as the cause of the fish deaths in Ebute Afuye Cluster of Epe LGA.
Renecon had, however, debunked the claim and blamed water hyacinth for the fish farmers’ misfortune.
In a statement made available to newsmen on the issue recently, the Renecon boss, had said, “traditional fish farmers and informed stakeholders were of the opinion that water hyacinth, which is a seasonal environmental malice impacting on water transportation and lives of marine resources and fisheries in the state, and in particular Epe area, caused the death of the caged tilapia fishes as the vegetation covered and heated up the lagoon surface and drastically reduced the oxygen levels under water needed for fishes and other marine resources to survive.”