Fishermen and women at Tono in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region on Monday appealed to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aqua Culture to support them with outboard motors to enable them increase their catch.

“For now we are using the man-power, paddling to move the canoes on the water and it is not helping us to improve our work, so we are appealing to the Ministry, through the Municipal Assembly to provide us with motors that would help us to move faster and expand our area of operations to increase our catch,” the fishermen said.

The fishermen operate on the Tono Irrigation Dam, which covers two districts, the Kassena-Nankana Municipality and the Kassena-Nankana West District and is used for both irrigation and fish farming by communities surrounding it.

Mr Zakariah Kuyiamoh, the Tax Force Officer on the Dam and the 2018 Award Winner for Best Fisherman in the Upper East Region, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Tono on behalf of the fishers said, they were not able to get more catch due to their inability to cover the entire dam.

Mr Kuyiamoh said one fisherman needed about five hours to access the centre of the dam using the paddle to move the canoe on the water and that made it tedious and difficult for them.

“With the outboard motors we will be able to cover a larger area and increase our earnings and that would help us contribute our quota to national development,” he said.

Mr Kuyiamoh also appealed to the government to help them access loans from the banks to buy canoes as their old ones were too weak and could fall apart during fishing operations.

A canoe cost about GHC1,200.00 to GHC2,000.00, depending on the type of wood used to build it.

He said the Tono Dam was a big contributor of fish in the Region and produced high quality fish for the market, “there are about seven types of fishes in the dam, including small and large Tilapia, Mudfish and ‘Gear box’ or ‘helicopter fish’ among others”.

Mr Kuyiamoh said fishing was the major source of employment for many people in the communities surrounding the dam and called on the government to support the people to work and improve their livelihood.

He said apart from their inability to expand their operations, some environmental challenges including the weather and heavy prolonged rains also interfered in their working activities every year.

“During the cold harmattan weather, we usually get low catch, so for now we do not get much but that will change in March when the weather is warm and the fishes come out,” he said.

Mr Kuyiamaoh urged stakeholders and management of the Dam to pay regular attention to its maintenance as the damage on the spill way by floods last year cost fishermen dearly.