Water Wheel July/Aug 2021: Communities And Inland Fisheries

Abstract

Investigating the potential of inland fisheries in South Africa Consider South Africa’s 700-plus public dams. Could fishing in these inland waters improve the lives of our rural poor? Yes, but to a point. Commercial inland fishing in South Africa has been historically confined to a handful of dams and the lion’s share to a single dam – the Bloemhof Dam, on the Vaal River. Efforts to develop a commercial sector have largely floundered. The business case has in the past been described as marginal, the prospects for creating jobs, poor. Yet there is certainly an appetite for freshwater fish, including an undersupplied market among the African immigrant community. And there appears to be a good case for smallscale or artisanal fisheries, but how best to balance the need to protect a natural resource with the imperative to advance economic development? The answer is a bit like the bottom of some of our dams – murky – and the dearth of studies on the subject hasn’t helped.

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