Gurunagar fishermen call for multi-day craft

By Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The fishermen in the Northern Province call upon the government to provide multi-day fishing boats to sustain their livelihood amidst competition from their Indian counterparts.

“We use trawlers and are unable to catch sufficient fish to meet demand. We lost our boats due to the war and we could only purchase trawlers. Since, the Indian fishermen encroach our sea, we find it difficult to catch enough fish to maintain a regular income,” Gurunagar Fisheries Development Society President Julian Sahayaraj said.

We need to go for multi-day fishing boats and call on the government to suggest alternative methods of livelihood in case the issue is not solved.

There are over 16,000 trawlers from India which enter our sea and we only have 250 boats, he said at a meeting in Jaffna with the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) which led a business delegation from Colombo recently.

The NCE is the only private sector Chamber exclusively serving exporters, has cooperated with the Local Empowerment through Economic Development (LEED) project based in the North to establish business links with producers, suppliers and business entities.

"We need technical assistance to preserve the excess fish harvest during the fishing season. The business contacts from outside the province are vital to expand our market base. There is steady supply of fish and finding regular buyers is important to sustain our livelihood and income," Sahayaraj said.

The LEED project is an initiative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and is funded by Australian Aid (AUSAID) of the Government of Australia.

It launched operations in February 2011 in the Vavuniya North division of the Northern Province, and is operational in the Kilinochchi, Mulaitivu and Vavuniya districts. The present phase of the project will continue until June.The initiative of the NCE to cooperate with the LEED Project of the ILO, will contribute to fast track economic development in the Northern Province.