ARUSHA, Tanzania, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Tanzania's central region of Singida have suspended fishing activities in Lake Kitangiri for one year to save the water body from disappearance.
Kitangiri is one of the country's Rift Valley soda lakes, which is shared by five districts of Iramba, Igunga, Meatu and Kishapu, all to be affected by the ban.
Emmanuel Luhahula, Iramba District Commissioner, said on Sunday that fishing activities will be closed from July 1 this year to June 30, 2018.
He cited overfishing, illegal fishing, and environmental degradation, as factors that exert enormous pressure on the lake.
Increasing population and climate change are other factors that caused a shift from dependency on crop cultivation and livestock keeping to fishing, according to Luhahula.
"That's why we've closed down all human activities which are unfriendly the water body in an effort to restore the degraded natural resources."
"Illegal fishing is the enemy number one on this lake, that's why we decided to completely suspend fishing. The ban will also help to improve fish stock in the lake," the official said.
Luhahula who is also the chairman of district security committee further said the move is in line with the strategy to save the central region of Singida from becoming a desert as a result of uncontrolled human activities.
According to him, Lake Kitangiri was in the list of natural water bodies in central Tanzania that were to disappear in the next ten years if there are no measures in place.
"We want to the lake continues to both social and economic benefits as well as ecological ones. But, in some areas of the lake people have destroyed all the fish breeding sites," the official stressed.
