By M, KNA
Cage fish farmers at Dunga beach in Kisumu County are counting heavy losses following the death of their fish in the cages estimated at over 9.5million shillings.
The chairman of the Dunga fish Cages farmers Joel Otieno said the loss was unimaginable and sent a passionate to the County government of Kisumu to come to their rescue and bail them out of an imminent financial crisis as some farmers had loans to service.
He asked governor Anyang Nyongo to liaise with the national government and come up with a bailout kitty for affected farmers who were desperate for financial boost to regain their footing after the devastating loss.
Otieno said nine of his fish cages were initially affected before the crisis spread to three others causing losses running to millions of shillings as one of the units when harvested optimally could plough in more than Sh800,000 per season.
‘‘We have incurred losses amounting to over Sh9.6 million from the 12 units at Dunga fish beach and for that we are appealing to the County government of Kisumu to come to the rescue because the massive death of fish due to suspected suffocation is a big blow,’’ he pleaded.
The Kisumu County Executive Committee Member (CEC) for Agriculture Mr. Kenneth Onyango disclosed that investigation are already underway to unravel what could have cause such massive death of fish in the cages said to have been due to lack of enough oxygen and to remedy such so as to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
“It was reported that about 9 cages among the cages at Dunga beach were affected and all the fish died in the cages and we have instituted mechanisms to clean the lake of the dead fish including ensuring that the dead fish are properly excavated and dispose of so they don’t reach the market” pointed Onyango
The CEC also noted that the removal of the dead fish from the lake and disposing them was done under the close supervision by the department of public health and in accordance with the public health safety measures even as he appealed to those whose fish are still in the cages to seek the approval and the go ahead from the public health department and remove and take them to the market to avert further losses.
