'Provide fishing infrastructure for Ketu'

Page 15, Jan 12, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Member of Parliament (MP) for Anlo, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, has called on the government to extend construction of cold stores, fishing harbours and fish hatcheries to the eastern coastline of the Keta and Ketu South districts.
According to him, provision of these facilities would improve the livelihoods of the fishermen along the coastline of the southern Volta.
The MP was commenting on the 2010 Budget for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Mr Humado noted that the present programme concentrated only on the central and western coastline, and this was a carry-over from the programme of the previous government.
He contends that now that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is in power, there should be a balancing act to ensure that the livelihoods of fishermen along the coastline of the southern Volta are also improved with these facilities.
The MP lamented that the large water body of the Keta-Avu Lagoon, its tributaries and the lower Volta estuaries had not been given the necessary attention that it deserved for marine fishing.
Mr Humado also called on the government to ensure that marine fishermen along the coast of Ghana were protected from the poaching activities of industrial fishing vessels, which illegally fished in the Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ) of the Ghana’s territorial waters.
This problem, he said, must be high on the agenda of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the 2010 Budget and its implementation.
Mr Humado was, however, full of praise for the government for its ability to effectively deal with the premix fuel problem which had almost become a thing of the past.