{"id":32650,"date":"2014-08-23T09:50:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T13:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32650"},"modified":"2014-08-23T09:55:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T13:55:40","slug":"the-fishermen-of-mannar-are-now-far-ahead-of-the-farmers-in-their-journey-to-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32650","title":{"rendered":"The Fishermen of Mannar are now far Ahead of the Farmers in their Journey to Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

by
\nThulasi Muttulingam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time and tide, they say, wait for no man. Now though, through the intervention of an infrastructure project funded by the European Union to help fishermen, tides have been taken out of the equation.<\/p>\n

\"TMMF1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Palk bay, running along the coast of Mannar, is known to many for various reasons, not the least of which is the controversial Sethusamudram project.
\n
\nSethusamudram is the shallow sea off the Gulf of Mannar. She has allowed contact between India and Sri Lanka for millennia via simple boats, but ships cannot navigate her. Plans to dredge a deep channel to overcome this handicap have been proposed from over 200 years ago, starting with the British (and recently India) \u2013 but there were always other issues to be considered; economic, ecological and environmental. There still are.<\/p>\n

Boat farers\u2019 worries<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the meantime, however, while the ship farers muse as to what to do, the boat farers had their own worries. The sea is a difficult mistress, but to Mannar fisherman, she was often also an inaccessible tease. If they didn\u2019t time it right to operate within a few hours of high tide, the sea receded kilometres away from shore, making them either drag their boats out and in, though slush, or give up fishing for the day.<\/p>\n

As the sea\u2019s ebb and flow changed from day to day, they could not always bank on planning in advance to catch the tide, in order to minimise the stress on their bodies and boats.<\/p>\n

\"TMMF2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were fishermen who got up at 3 a.m. in the morning to catch the tide \u2013 but then had to wait more than an hour at the shore because the tide was late coming in,\u201d says J. Manoj (50), a fisherman from Pallikuda village. \u201cThen there were those who reached the shore at 6.00 in the morning only to see an expanse of marshy land before them, as the sea had receded.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was no easy task dragging their boats through this marsh out to sea, though it often wasn\u2019t more than a kilometre. The fishermen, who are highly superstitious about not disrespecting their means of livelihood, would never dream of plying out to sea with footwear on. And so they waded barefoot, often encountering sharp, jagged coral or even crabs, sea cucumbers and sea snakes in the slush.<\/p>\n

Even without those hazards however, the marshy bog they had to wade through was no cakewalk. \u201cIt felt like the soil sucked the energy from our feet,\u201d remembers S. Rajkumar (42), secretary of the Fisheries Cooperative Society of Pallikuda-Valarmathy village. \u201cIt drained us to just lift each knee in front of the other, through that bog. Add the equipment we had to carry on top of that, and on some days we\u2019d just cave in and decide not to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajkumar is a teetotaller but most fishermen here aren\u2019t. They have only one panacea for all their ills \u2013 the locally brewed and very potent Palmyrah toddy. Elaborates Rajkumar, on how the sea\u2019s vicissitudes played out in their daily life: \u201cMany a fellow here would trace his steps to the shore, see how far the sea had receded and change his mind about going fishing for the day. He would then retrace his steps \u2013 not back home, but to the local tavern. In the evening, the wife and children dependant on his daily income, waiting expectantly for father to come home with fish and money, would see him stagger home empty-handed instead, drunk and in debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TMMF3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A fighting chance<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the European Union Support to Socio Economic Measures (EU-SEM) project was launched in Sri Lanka however, many of these fishermen finally had a fighting chance of achieving a long-held dream \u2013 excavations by their shores to prevent the sea from receding.<\/p>\n

\u201cFishermen of this area have long known that channel excavations would help ease their burden,\u201d says S.B Mirando, the Assistant Director of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Mannar.<\/p>\n

\"TMMF4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut they did not have the financial resources required. Many different village communities tried digging channels manually but it was never enough. They couldn\u2019t dig deep enough and the shallow excavations thus dug would keep the sea in for only a few months before shoring up again. The EU and ZOA (aid agency) have done us a valuable service. I regret that they could not do so for all our deserving fishing communities, and so I have asked our engineers to prepare proposals for the villages left behind, in the event of new Aid coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to R. Oampragash, Technical Officer supervising the project for ZOA Sri Lanka, the EU\u2019s implementing partner on the ground, the project was ground breaking in that it had never been attempted before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did feasibility studies with the aid of the Department of Coast Conservation\u2019s engineers \u2013 but since nothing on this scale had been attempted before \u2013 we were all clueless as to what the project would entail and how it would eventually turn out. Naysayers deterred us from starting the project for a long time, claiming that the dredged up sand would shore in soon and so the project would be a failure. However the Department of Coast Conservation finally gave their assurance saying that as we were planning to excavate up to six feet, it would take five years to shore up \u2013 and that too could be prevented by yearly maintenance work to dredge up the shored sand. The villagers joyfully agreed to undertake this maintenance work themselves, and so we went ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a testament to what kind of soil it was the fisherman encountered every day, Oampragash and his team nearly lost two back hoes in their excavation attempts. \u201cThey were huge machines but they simply started sinking into the soil,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSince we were unprepared for these soil conditions, we wasted time figuring out what to do, during which time they almost sank completely. Fortunately, we were able to dig them back up using Palmyra trunks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TMMF4B\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day\u2019s catch and happy grins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, walks along those shores which have had channels excavated (nine in all), tell their own story. A boat cleaves the water neatly at 11 a.m. on a hot day at one of these villages as a group of fishermen come speeding right up to shore, bearing their day\u2019s catch and happy grins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat difference have these channels made in your life?\u201d I ask them. \u201cWe would have to stagger back over one km with our 50kg of fish if not for this channel,\u201d they respond. \u201cAnd that journey would have taken us over an hour. We carried the fish on our heads, and the sun beating down on it that length of time, made it spoil fast. So people had to cook and eat it immediately. If they didn\u2019t buy it, our entire day\u2019s efforts would go to waste.<\/p>\n

Even so, we would have to drag ourselves back to sea again to clean our boats and bring them back \u2013 as they were too valuable to leave behind, along with our engines, nets and kerosene. Those who felt lazy to do this in the past have paid for it with the thefts of their engines and nets, and sometimes even their boats.\u201d
\nDue to these exertions which resulted in severe bodily exhaustion, fishermen thus affected went fishing only three days a week at best, as they needed to rest and recuperate every alternate day. <\/p>\n

Now not only do they go out every day, but even two to three times a day \u2013 which has led to a marked increase in their income.<\/p>\n

\"TMMF5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Improved bargaining power<\/strong><\/p>\n

These being rural areas without access to even electricity in most places, they used to lose a lot due to wastage and damage, especially if they arrived too late to miss the morning market. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here shop before 10 a.m., to prepare for their lunches,\u201d explains one. \u201cIf we missed that time bracket, the fish would have to be either thrown away or sold at absurdly low prices.\u201d
\nZOA Sri Lanka under the EU SEM (2011-2014) project however, introduced not only the excavation channels but also auction centres to collectively sell their fish as well as marketing reps from various areas, to break the hold of the exploitative middlemen they were selling to.<\/p>\n

Before, as soon as a fisherman dragged his catch to shore, he would be glad to dispose of it to anyone who would buy, especially if he had gone out too late and thus had a lesser market as well as rapidly-deteriorating fish. Now, however, collective sales have improved their bargaining power. They can time their fishing to come in early without being dependant on the tide. And even if they choose to go out again for a second time\u2019s catch, they can opt to keep the fish in cool boxes till the next day if the middlemen standing by with coolers of their own do not offer a good price.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s empowerment<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has had a marked difference in their lives. \u201cFor the first time, we are living a life free of debt. We did not even know that such a thing was a possibility within our trade,\u201d says S. Jeyaranji (29), who has broken ground as a female manager of a Fisheries Co-operative Society in this heavily patriarchal area, where girls are often even kept off the beach. There are women living here in some coastal areas who have thus never seen their beaches, much less gone out to sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe semmatis (middlemen) cheated us on the scales used for weighing our fish, cheated us on the rates they offered, and cheated us on when they would pay the money \u2013 only at the end of every week,\u201d says Jeyaranji.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, with these auction centres that ZOA built for us, our catches go for instant cash at double the prices the semmatis used to offer. Many of our men, motivated by the high prices and easy accessibility to the sea go out early in the morning and are done with their day\u2019s work by 10 a.m. (unless they choose to go out yet again), leaving them free to be more productive in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeyaranji\u2019s own husband is a disabled fisherman, who would not have been able to access the sea, if not for the excavated channel. \u201cHe had to have one leg amputated below his knee, due to shelling during the war,\u201d she says. \u201cBut now, thanks to the channel, he can go out and come in early enough to help look after our daughter while I take care of work at my office.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds, smilingly, \u201cHe is the one who cooks lunch.\u201d This intervention therefore can be said to have contributed not only to livelihood improvement within their community but also aided in addressing issues of women\u2019s empowerment. Not all men are currently as supportive of their wives working as Jeyaranji\u2019s husband \u2013 but it has given at least some women like her, a head start.<\/p>\n

Resilient and resourceful<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a young woman who cowered heavily pregnant in a bunker during shelling and despaired of life for herself or her child, Jeyaranji has come a long way. She and her fellow community members have been through a lot; war, displacement, poverty, exploitation \u2013 but they are yet resilient and resourceful. Getting these literally shell-shocked people back on their feet has been an arduous task. But this one intervention has given them a buoyancy and hope that has an impetus of its own.<\/p>\n

The fishermen of Mannar are now far ahead of the farmers, in their journey to sustainability.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

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by Thulasi Muttulingam Time and tide, they say, wait for no man. Now though, through the intervention of an infrastructure project funded by the European Union to help fishermen, tides have been taken out of the equation. The Palk bay, running along the coast of Mannar, is known to many for various reasons, not the …<\/p>\n

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