Stakeholders around Lake Naivasha are calling for a major cleaning exercise targeting tonnes of abandoned nets.
The nets trap and kill hundreds of fish every day leading to a sharp drop in fish catch in the polluted water body.
Last year, a cleaning exercise by the county government and members of the Beach Management Units recovered over 50 tonnes of dead nets.
The concern comes amid a rise in cases of seining (fishing along the shores of the lake) with those involved using filament or mosquito nets for the illegal activity.
Francis Muthui, the chairman of Friends of Lake Naivasha, said the abandoned nets were a major threat to the fisheries sector.
He said the nets which were spread across the lake choked hundreds of fish every day, adding that it was time that they were manually removed.
Muthui said the water hyacinth was responsible for spread of the nets, forcing fishermen to incur losses running into thousands of shillings every month.
“The water hyacinth weed has played a critical role in increasing the number of the dead nets leading to a double blow for the fisher folks,” he said.
The chairman of Lake Naivasha Boat Owners Association David Kilo supported calls for a cleaning exercise targeting the rising number of the nets.
“The abandoned nets have turned out to be the new fish killers in the lake and it’s important that we conduct a major clean-up exercise before things get out of hand,” he said.
He said that this had adversely affected navigation for boat operators who ferry visitors from one point of the lake to the other.
“Several operators have lost their engines through the abandoned nets and we are calling for a joint clean-up exercise to deal with this mess,” he said.
Lake Naivasha Basin Landscape Association chairman Paul Ruoya said that increased cases of logging and farming on the land around the lake had affected the lake's ecosystem.
He said the lake was very critical to the economy of the country and Nakuru county as it was supported tens of flower farms and hundreds of jobs.
“We are deeply concerned over the abandoned nets in the lake, which are killing tens of fish and birds daily and we are calling for frequent cleaning of this water body,” he said.
