Cries as Lake Chiuta dries

How can farmers and fishers co-exist as lakes dry? JAMES CHAVULA unravels one of silently steaming conflicts in a wetland less minded.

   

Stagnant pools, not a full-scale lake. Just dams in drying mud, not an expansive fishing ground with boats gliding where fishers feared to cast their nets in futile. An endangered wetland under a scorching sun.

Malawians surrounding Lake Chiuta offer grim flashbacks of the drying of the water body in the south-eastern border region.

“Life was tough around this time in 2016,” says Chief Ngokwe, explaining: “We used to walk on dry patches when crossing over to the neighbouring Mozambique.”

Their recollections bring to mind the biblical tale of how Israelites miraculously crossed the Red Sea in escape from Pharaoh’s army in Egypt.

But to the fishing community, it was neither a triumphant march of a chosen few—but a cause for worry for thousands throughout the villages along Lake Chiuta, north of Lake Chilwa.

A knee high

The two lakes, only separated by a sprawling sandy ridge, are hit hard by chronic drought which worsen hunger and poverty for millions of Malawians.

Hydrologists estimate that only a quarter of Lake Chiuta remained with water as crops wilted.

Satelite map of Lake Chiuta

Good rains in the 2017 growing season restored optimism in the wetland prone to climate shocks.

“The lake is rising, but not adequately. We need some more,” says Linosi Chikwanje, from the maize-growing Nafisi Village. But 2018 was no end to their misery as hopes for an exodus from hunger to surplus was dashed by another spate of drought.

Government estimates that almost 1.9 million farming families will need emergency food assistance this year.

At Big Chiuta, the deepest point, Njerwa villagers point to a line of eucalyptus, located almost 120 metres from the shoreline.

The rains started late and vanished too fast to fill the lake, they say.

“The lake used to fill all that stretch to the trees, but it has been receding for years. Five months of good rains were not going to be enough,” explains Ngokwe.

Most parts of the lake are just a knee-deep, even at Big Chiuta. The levels of the lake less visited cause anxiety in the families on its beach. Their fingers point one way—upstream.

A scheme under fire

The falling water levels have catalysed conflicts between the fishers and rice growers upstream.

Rice remains the widely grown in the wetland, occupying about 541 500 acres. However, it has come under fire following the construction of Kamwaza Rice Scheme along Lifunu River.

Discontent is growing downstream where the fishers accuse the architects of the scheme of blocking the lake’s inlet.

But the rice farmers say they only abstract a little water, leaving the rest flowing to the lake.

“The scheme may be to blame for the drying lake, but insufficient rains in recent times are also to blame,” says Fisheries Integration of Society and Habitats (Fish) Project official Elube Kachilola.

Statistics from the USAID-funded Fish Project show Lake Chiuta waterline is just about half its desired levels of 580 - 650mm.

But the fishers in 16 villages, who fled to Njerwa when the lake run dry two years ago, are having none of this arithmetic.

“Our area receives insufficient rains, but the lake would not have dried up fast if the river had been left to flow freely,” says Cecilia Jackson.

To Lake Chirwa Fisheries chairperson Mathias Mainala, the making of Kamwaza Rice Scheme was fraught with broken promises from the start.

“We saw this coming,” he says. “We expressed our worries at the onset, but the brains behind the scheme assured us that they would not disrupt the river. When we visited the intake recently, we were surprised to discover that their dam was full while the lake is drying.”

The fisher folk want a win-win deal.

“When the lake dries, we will be in trouble,” says Mainala.

Lifuni is equally stressed by drought and siltation. From a single-lane bridge where rice growers control water, we saw a frail rivulet trickling into a quarter-full dam—signaling a no less crisis upstream. From the gaping reservoir, weaker rivulets flow past a concrete slab to the rice scheme.

The fishing community blame this for the water stress in the lake.

   Ngokwe: Government had good intentions // Photo: James Chavula

Nobody likes to starve. ....Authorities must do something about it before the fishers and farmers start fighting for water.”

In 2017, Fish Project governance and capacity specialist Dick Kachilonda called for dialogue between the farmers and fishers. 
He argues: "The scheme is important for the food security in farming families, but there was need to eject the water back into the river for the benefit of villages on its banks and near the lake.

“Therefore, the fisheries and agriculture officials need to explore ways of ensuring both sides benefit” 

The misunderstanding rages as both crop yields and fish catches are declining due to climate change and breakdowns in the ecosystem.

According to Chief Ngokwe, the main problem is that the voices of the fishing communities “did not count” in the designing and running of the rice scheme. “Nobody likes to starve,” he says. “Government and its partners had good intentions when they constructed the scheme, but the way they diverted the water has brought more problems. Authorities must do something about it before the fishers and farmers start fighting for water.”

At stake is the right to water and global goals to end poverty by 2030. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) oblige governments and development partners to ensure everyone has enough water and food.

As rice flourishes upstream, fishers feel they are being left behind.