Senanga

Senanga is a town in the Western Province of Zambia, on the eastern bank of the Zambezi River, at the southern end of its Barotse Floodplain. It lies on the main road running parallel to the river from Livingstone and Sesheke to Mongu, which crosses the river by a pontoon ferry about 15 km south of Senanga. The section of the road to Mongu, once paved, is in poor condition and the section to Sesheke is a gravel road, often in poor condition in the rainy season.

In addition to the river and floodplain with its wildife and fishing opportunities, Senanga is about 120 km from Sioma Ngwezi National Park and about 80 km from Ngonye Falls. It has a hotel and serves as a base for fishing tours by boat. A tall radio mast makes a prominent landmark in the town.

The fishing opportunities are in great danger

Anglers at the 15th International held at Senanga Safaris noted the rampant illegal netting on the upper Zambezi and are highly concerned the plea is yet again going to fall on deaf ears.

All the major breeding grounds of nembwe, tigerfish, slidejaw, pink and green happy face rapid depletion in the next few months if the illegal netting is not immediately curtailed.

Anglers from all corners witnessed a well financed operation where netting is financed by an Asian in Mongu and cheap nets are causing major destruction from as far as Lukulu to Senanga.

Almost every bank had been depleted of fish stocks and anglers faced tough days on the river either catching very little fish or getting hooked up in nets extending down 7 metres with weights.

The same song has been sung for the past few years and recreational anglers conscientiously pay their licences as a requirement of tournament regulations for participation and then face illegal netters raping the mighty river right in front of them.

This is not subsistence fishing. A man using a net to feed his family does not pound the water with paddles with the aim of taking out 500 fish at a time and then paddling some 100km upriver to Mongu to trade them.Most of the anglers have fished alongside subsistence angelers for two or three generations and enjoyed the river and it's abundance.

Sadly the abundance is in great danger and the efforts of the Department of Fisheries is simply not good enough. The local officer claimed to have confiscated four nets on the final day of the competition but did not take into account that there are probably several thousand nets between Senanga and Lukulu.

The anglers noted that not a single crocodile was sighted which implies that those caught in nets are being killed.The local doctors at the hospital have also noted a huge upswing in local residents being attacked by hippos which would imply them being an irritant to the hippo population with the angling methods they employ.

The only answer is better policing of the river by the Department of Fisheries and a zero tolerance approach to illegal netting activity. The suppliers of nets should also be regulated whereby they supply numbered nets to licenced commercial fishermen only and if a net is found on an unlicenced fisherman the supplier then faces a ten year jail term.

The Zambezi is meant to be our heritage and a river that feeds the Barotse nation.

Right now it is in extreme danger. God help it.