Win- win solution for all parties without additional costs
In the Sunday Times last week, there was a news item highlighting the difficulties faced by a community of fishermen because of the operations of the Lakvijaya coal power plant off Puttalam. From the report it appears that ships carrying coal to the power plant sometimes arrive off schedule and off track, thereby causing damage and destruction to fishing nets of the fishermen of the area who had laid their fishing nets in the path of the ships , because they had not known the changes in schedules.
Destruction of a fishing net must be a devastating loss to the fishermen and their families because replacing the net requires a considerable investment and is a burden to those families in their struggle to make ends meet.
After reading the article I felt that there are many solutions to this problem that do not require any investment except for some initiative on the part of the state agency responsible for preventing this kind of situation.
The steps that can be implemented by the authorities:
1. Obtain a monthly schedule of coal ship arrivals and distribute it through Grama Niladari and fishermen unions etc to the fishermen. This can be verified continuously through ship movement websites like https://www.marinetraffic. com too.
2. Coordinate with shipping companies and Lakvijaya and obtain details of changes if the schedule is changed.
3. Obtain mobile numbers of fishermen engaged in fishing in this area and create a group.
4. When an unexpected change is taking place in the schedule send out text messages to the group. Since ship movements are not changed suddenly unless there is an emergency, any change can easily be notified with ample prior notice by the shipper/Lakvijaya to the state agency and in turn the agency can release a group SMS to
the fishermen.
5. Fishermen having received the prior notice can take off the nets, if they have laid them in the danger area and allow the ship to pass without their fishing nets being damaged or destroyed.
None of these activities requires any investment other than the cost for the text messages. And if there are 200 such fishermen and a schedule change occurs once a month the total cost for the service would be 200x.25 that is Rs 50.
In the case of ships that are off track, the state agency can demarcate a clear approaching corridor for the ships coming to Lakvijaya and promulgate it. They can also inform shipping companies that ships that violate these corridor boundaries will have a large fine imposed on them because of the danger they pose to the fishing gear and the lives of fishermen.
Ship captains now have two compelling reasons to avoid transgressing the safe corridor; a fine and the additional cost they incur in clearing propellers of remnants of fishing net if they overrun one of them.
It’s a win- win situation for everybody, ships , fishermen and Lakvijaya without any capital investment and very little recurrent expenses.