Assessing the impact of water hyacinth on fishing communities in Lake Kyoga.

Abstract

This study was conducted at Namasale landing site,Namasale sub county,Amolatar district. The impacts of water hyacinth on fishing communities around Namasale landing sitewere studied with a view to assessing effects of trends of water hyacinth cover. Primary data was collected using interviews utilizing questionnaires administered to fishing communities, governments and non- governments agencies. 15% of the respondents were female and 85% were males. Results indicate the highest percentage of the respondents were married (66%). Most of the respondents were in the age bracket of 18 to 35 years (48%). Those who have lived in the area for 5 to 10 years constituted 53% of the respondents, 31.7 % had lived in the area for over 10 years, while 1.7% had lived in the area for less than 5years.Respondents engaged in fishing activities encountered water hyacinth while fishing on the lake. Rated in terms of encounters per month, 60% of the respondents encountered 2 to 5 times per month; 30% encountered more than 15 times per month with 8.3%, and 1.7% never encountered water hyacinth while fishing.96.7% of the respondents observed seasonal variations in water hyacinth coverage being more prevalent in the wet season (95% of the respondents) than the dry (5% of the respondents). Responses of 54.9% indicated that water hyacinth provided favourable breeding grounds for fish; 17.1% indicated water hyacinth increased fish catches while 14.6% indicated water hyacinth had no effect on fish catch.Negatively, water hyacinth affected fishing communities by blocking the navigation channels, reduction in fish market, and its breeding ground for pest with reported by 36.8%, 35.1% and 1.8% reported by of the respondents.Basing on the study on water hyacinth conducted together with other previous studies about water hyacinth , I concluded that there should be high need to control its existence since it is covering up the water bodies and affecting seriously the fishery department and then generally the navigation system.