Fuel: fishermen in Youpwè hit by shortage
Fuel: fishermen in Youpwè hit by shortage
Limited supply, increase in prizes and difficulty in storage are part of the troubles imposed on the fish traders, due to the unavailability of super .
Joseph Dithimi is a fisherman who lives in Youpwe, in the Douala two subdivision. Today December 13, 2023, he is at home with his children. Under normal circumstances, he should be in the deep sea now fishing. But because of lack of fuel to power his fishing boat he cannot . Joseph who normally fishes every day, has done so just twice for the past five days.
During this time, he limited most of his activities around the banks considering the little fuel he had. « I have no petrol to go out so I rest with my children in the house. Because of limited fuel, we cannot go far into the river to fish, because we normally go far when we have fuel. But without it we cannot take the risk to go that far, so we just fish around», explains Joseph.
The difficulty in fishing has caused an immediate increase in the prize of fish in the Youpwe market. Véronique B, who just returned from the market with fish and is cleaning it to cook, complains she spent more than usual . « In the past, that is before saturday, you could buy fish here with 1 000 F Cfa, or even 500 F Cfa. But now you cannot. For two days now it has not been easy», she reports.
The increase in the price can be attributed to the fact that many fish traders do not go into the deep sea as usual to get fish
Since the beginning of the unavailability of fuel, fish traders have not journeyed as usual. « We can no longer travel to the sea because fuel is scarce. It is about 5 days now that we are just grounded. The fish we have now is what we got when we were in the sea last week. when we came back, we noticed there was fuel scarcity. We have blackouts, no ice to preserve the fish, we are forced to stay here to auction them because it will get rotten if we take them home», decries, Som Batoum a fish trader.
According to an economist on the disturbing situation, there will be several consequences on local economy. « We have about 52 rivers in Cameroon. There are many youths whose principal source of income is fishing . If they do not have fuel to power their boats to fish, that means they cannot work (…) If it continues, for let’s say one or two weeks, we will begin feeling the impact more. I think the problem is deeper than what we see now», indicates Dalvarice Ngoudjou, an economist. He adds: «The real problem here is that we import petrol 100%. We also export 100% of what we produce. This has to stop. We need to start producing our own fuel as soon as possible. »
Rex Afon (Intern)
