For many years, illegal and over-fishing have depleted the population of fish in the lakes and rivers across Cambodia, particularly during the dry season.
For fishermen in Kampong Cham province’s Kang Meas district, they have pinned their hopes on a conservation lake on the border with Kandal province which has bred all kinds of fish to be released into six other lakes when the Mekong River flows into them during the rainy season.
However, the hopes of fishermen living around the six lakes in the district have been dashed as the conservation lake has dried up this year before the Mekong River fills it with water.
Yet, the conservation lake in Kang Meas district, known as Boeng Bak Rotes, has dried up due to human causes and not climate change like other lakes.
According to Eang Nam, head of Kang Meas District Fishing Community, Beong Bak Rotes covers an area of around 50 hectares with the centre of 30 hectares as being reserved for conservation.
“Fishermen can catch fish in the surrounding area but not in the centre,” he says.
During the rainy season, he says the lake is between 5 metres and 6 metres deep but it shrinks to 1.5 metres and 1 metre deep during the dry season.
“This lake has never dried up no matter how low the water is,” he says.
This year, however, Nam says rice farmers have looked at the conservation lake as the last source of water for their farming after they had claimed more forest and lake land and turned it into rice fields.
“When there was no water anywhere near, they started pumping water from the conservation lake,” he says. “Before long, Beoung Bak Rotes has dried up and the fish have been caught or killed.”
The loss of the main breeding fish from Beoung Bak Rotes has turned the fish population from bad to worse and will have a domino effect on fishermen, fish vendors and consumers as a whole in Kang Meas district and other people near and far.
May Kien, a 46-year-old father of two who has been a fisherman for 15 years, says it has become harder and harder for him and other fellow fishermen to catch fish in the lakes in Kang Meas district.
“I used to catch between 10 and 15 kilogrammes of fish but now I can catch only about 2 to 4 kilogrammes per day,” he says. “Our life will become even more difficult after the conservation lake has dried up.”
However, Kien says he still hopes that there will be some fish left if there is no illegal fishing in the lakes in his district when the lakes are filled with water from the Mekong River.
Kien says he is now making a living by fishing in the Mekong River instead using a casting net when he cannot fish in the lakes.
“But, illegal fishing is even more serious in the Mekong River,” he laments. “Some fishermen have used illegal pulling fishing nets that can catch even the smallest fish.”
Because of the sharp decline of fish, Kien says he tries to find whatever daily work he can as a manual laborer to supplement his fishing career.
“When people die, their families hire me to dig and build graves for them,” he says, looking at a new grave behind his house.
Likewise, Ry Kim Sreang, a 43-year-old villager who has been a fisherwoman for more than 20 years in Kampong Cham province, says she and husband also face difficulties in catching fish by using seine fishing nets.
“In the past, we could just deploy a 200-metre seine net and we could catch enough fish to sell and feed our children,” she recalls. “Now, we use a 500-metre seine net and can catch only a few kilogrammes of fish.”
Kim Sreang says her family has now focused more on rice farming and raising cows to make a living.
“How can we rely on fishing if there are no fish in the lakes and rivers?” she asks. “We would rather work on the land doing whatever jobs we can find.”
On the banks of the Mekong River, fish vendors also resort to whatever source of fish they can buy to sell at a small market which sits on the boundary between Kampong Cham and Kandal provinces.
“I think there may be no more natural fish from the lakes and rivers in the future,” says 28-year-old Chim Samban, adding that virtually all fish he sells are from aquaculture fish farms.
Samban says he used to earn around $20 per day when there were a lot of natural fish. But, he says he can earn only about $5 now and that he has to work as a vegetable farmer in between his fish selling career.
“You cannot rely on selling fish alone,” he says.
Sin Srey Touch, a 38-year-old fish vendor who works next to Samban in the same market, says life is not better for her either.
“People don’t like to eat fish from aquaculture farms that use chemical feed,” she says.
Srey Touch says most fishermen sell the fish they catch in the lakes and rivers for $5 per kilogramme to middlemen who then sell them in Phnom Penh for a higher price.
“We sell fish from aquaculture farms for only $2.50 per kilogramme,” she says. “But, they do not taste as good as the natural fish from the lakes and rivers.”
Meanwhile, Kith Sareth, a 55-year-old fish vendor from Kang Meas district, says she also sells chicken and duck meat as well as bananas and other fruits to make a living.
“When I go home after working at the market, I also collect and buy recyclable materials to sell,” she says. “You have to work much harder to feed the family.”
Nevertheless, Eang Nam from Kampong Cham fishing community says the future is not too bleak for fishermen in his district.
“If the government can find an alternative source of water for rice farmers, we can preserve the water and fish in the conservation lake,” he says. “They may help dig a water reservoir for rice farmers to use during the dry season.”
But, fishermen like Kien and Kim Sreang in Kang Meas district will continue to make their living from fishing in the Mekong River before they can find more fish in the lakes again in the future.
2021 Virtus Media Pte., Ltd. (Khmer Times)