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| Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Nets,
outboard engines for 290 tsunami hit fishers
Two-hundred-and-ninety fishers in Kalmunai who were affected by the Asian tsunami received 3,571 nets and 15 outboard motor boat engines, last week. The input distribution was funded by the governments of Japan and Belgium, and the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission, and carried out by the FAO and the local Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (MFAR). Following the tsunami, organisations working in the fisheries sector have faced major constraints in acquiring some fishing related supplies as net and engines for distribution in Sri Lanka. This is due largely to the high demand for fishing gear throughout the disaster affected region, FAO's emergency relief and rehabilitation coordinator, here, Dr. Mona Chaya said. The nets for catching the small hurulla fish species was distributed in the form of 341 kits to 275 fishers affected by the tsunami, Dr. Chaya said. The beneficiaries had a choice of choosing between 30 and 38 millimetre mesh sizes, suited for local coastal fisheries. FAO's Japanese funded projects accounted for 1,759 of the nets, while funding from the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission accounted for 1,440 of the nets. The Belgium funded project accounted for 372 nets and the 15 outboard motors. The motors were distributed to beneficiaries who had lost their engines or those destroyed by the tsunami. The FAO and the Sri Lankan government's immediate priority is to get the fishers fishing and the farmers farming as soon as possible, Dr. Chaya said. The long term objective is to improve the fisheries sector as a whole to raise the incomes of the coastal communities, Dr. Chaya said. |
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