Most
vital surface water bodies in developing countries are under serious threat of
degradation resulting from constant discharge of polluted effluents stemming
from industrial, agricultural, mining and domestic/sewage activities and Kafue
is not an exception. The most affected river systems are those traversing
cities and towns in urban areas. The Kafue River in Zambia is one such river
system that is threatened with serious degradation and probable loss of
biodiversity. Kafue River cuts across the country in a North–South direction,
stretches for about 1576 km before draining into the Zambezi River.
Biodiversity is a manifestation of the totality of the
nation’s natural and cultural heritage that requires to be understood
appreciated and used sustainably. Biodiversity plays an
important function most often not recognized: the maintenance of ecological
balance through processes such as the water and nutrient cycling, control of
erosion and thus deterrence of land degradation, regulation of climatic factors
such as temperature and rainfall through carbon sequestration, and in the
production of crops through pollination.
Loss
of biodiversity in respect to the variety of animals, plants, their habitats
and their genes on which so much of human life depends, is one of the world’s
most pressing crises. The main drivers of this loss are converting natural
areas to farming and urban development, introducing invasive alien species,
polluting or over-exploiting resources including water and soils and harvesting
wild plants and animals at unsustainable levels. Kafue River is an
important habitat for a large variety of animals and plants, this include Fish,
amphibians, birds, insects, invertebrates, and reptiles live in this
river, or find their food there. This river play a vital role in connecting
habitats, and their value to plants and animals extends far beyond the surface
area they cover. This habitat connectivity role functions both between upstream
and downstream areas, and by connecting both sides of river banks. This
necessitates an approach to management that looks at the river basin as a whole
rather than just taking into account the river itself. Without a global
environment that is healthy and capable of supporting a diversity of life, no
human population can exist.
Fish
biodiversity conservation is perhaps one of the most neglected areas of
biodiversity conservation in the country, in wildlife biodiversity management, several
subspecies conservation strategies have been developed directed at securing
particular animal species and these include rhino, elephant, crocodile, wild
dog and tortoise.
In recent years, the depletion of
natural resources specifically fish has become a major focus of governments and
organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN's
Agenda 21 Section Two, which outlines the necessary steps to be taken by
countries to sustain their natural resources.
The depletion of natural resources is considered to be a sustainable
development issue.In regards to natural resources,
depletion is of concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to
degrade current environments and potential to impact the needs of future generations
when in the actual sense biological resources support the livelihoods of a vast
majority of rural populations and for commercial exploitation at a national
level. The benefits derived from natural resources contribute to the wealth of
Zambia in a number of different ways – at the level of households, communities
or provinces, from a variety of different sectors, including energy, tourism,
food, livestock, pharmaceuticals and forestry. Ash for shifting cultivation is
from burning forests and woodlands. Forests also provide timber, energy,
household tools and construction material. Plants and animals are important
sources of food. Medicines and other valuable chemicals products are obtained
from both plants and animals.
The
Kafue river basin is also core in poverty reduction in Zambia since it does not
only provide a livelihood for communities living in the basin but also offer a
life support to industrial, mining and agricultural sectors, the majors sectors
that provide employment and sources of income as well as survival to most
Zambia urban population. Projections indicate that about 80% of Zambians live
in income poverty and suffer from other deprivation such as little access and
poor quality of the social services.The Kafue River drains is one of the
greatest stratiform metallogenic rivers, especially on the Copperbelt Province
in Zambia (Unrug, 1988 as cited by Pettersson and Ingri, 2001) and further
passes through major industrial, mining and agricultural provinces in the
country carrying with it a variety of pollutant loads which include chemical
pollutants that may cause poisoning of the aquatic life and might eventually
lead to death, nutrients have been linked to the proliferation of aquatic weeds
(i.e. Salviniamolesta) and may lead to
eutrophication, blocking of navigation routes, increased BOD and COD
concentrations, decrease in overall dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, etc. Furthermore,
ingestion of chemically polluted water could have fatal effects to both humans
and animals.
The
involvement of non-governmental stakeholders and the public in policy making
and implementation has been recognized as an important feature in environmental
governance. The United Nations Millennium
Development Goals
recognizes the participation of non-state actors in all levels of governance
because they act as a resource pool of local knowledge in project
implementation, strengthen institutions of accountability, encourage the
efficient use of resources, among others. Participatory governance has been
defined as "the active involvement of citizens in government
decision-making”. The running and management of public affairs is not limited
to the government and public administration, but involves cooperation between
state institutions and civil society groups who participate in decision-making
and implementation. Participatory governance is a key attribute of good
governance, especially in states that have economies in transition, are newly
democratic, or are engaging in governance reforms because it integrates all
stakeholders irrespective of their status and capacity in society, and it is
essential in implementing equitable sustainable development. As a prospective
Aquaculturist/Fishery biologist, speaking from the research point of view, Kafue
river is very polluted with different chemicals from different Manufacturing
and Mining companies which contribute to the depletion of the indigenous fish species
in the Kafue river seeing that the effluent discharged in the river contains
different chemicals and materials therefore, in trying to conserve the Kafue
river biodiversity I appeal to all the companies which discharges their
effluent in the Kafue river especially on the Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces to
consider conserving the biodiversity of the river through restocking of the
river with fries and above all to comply with the waste water regulation
standard from Zambia Environmental Management Agency this also calls engagement
of serious measures and policies from the government of restocking the river
with fish by the perpetrators. I must commend some mines and other companies
for having taken such an initiative and challenging task of doing the restocking
after realizing the importance of the fish to human health in the community and
above the importance of conserving the aquatic biodiversity. Indeed this is one
of the corporate responsibilities that the private industries should
participate in, If the private, non-governmental stakeholders and the public in
policy making and implementation have been recognized as an important feature
in environmental governance why then should some stakeholders fail to take the
same step?
The
National Biodiversity Strategy is about the sustainable use and management of
biological resources, which can be achieved by the development and
implementation of local management systems that promote sustainable use of
biological resources and the design of incentive schemes which would apply to
all aspects of biological resources and stakeholders, this strategy needs
support from every Zambian.
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