Written by Clare Tutuana, Social Accountability and CSR Officer
The Fishing Industry of PNG and its members wish to observe this day by bearing in mind the challenges they face to provide decent water for its fishermen out at sea and having an adequate supply of water for the canneries and fishing vessels that fish and process the fish brought in by the vessels that go out to Sea.
Water is a basic necessity and essential for day to day operations of our fishing companies both fishing and processing. On a monthly basis, each of our (5) canneries needs up to 25000 Kilolitres of water to process fish brought in by vessels per trip. Each vessel alone requires up to 100 kilolitres of water to utilize per trip for the holding wells or hatches whilst the consumption of bottled water by fishers is estimated to be 21 kilolitres for 700 crew across our fleet of 55 Fishing Vessels per trip.
However, the adequate supply of water and the availability of portable water on both onshore and offshore facilities is a long-standing issue that causes at times our canneries to stop work for up to 1 or 2 days, which is a loss of business for the companies that affects the wage earners who are employed by our canneries in the country. Many times workers are aggrieved by the loss of work and the workers are women and girls who make up 80% of the total labour force of 15, 000 workers in the (5) canneries 1 . (Reference: 1 FIA Annual Report, 2022)
In most cases, the short supply of water and drinkable water is due to poor policies that create impediments to investments and growth.
In the interest of socially responsible best practices, our Fishing industry has developed a Social Responsibility and Human Rights procedure as part of its assurance model through the implementation of its Responsible Sourcing Policy that has in place a Quality Management System that caters to providing decent water to our fishermen onboard our fishing vessels out at sea. Apart from our canneries utilizing quality water supply services, to meet short supply it also has a system of sourcing water through rainwater catchments and irrigation of bore water but this has brought about charges and tariffs by municipal authorities for developing such initiatives.
What can be done about these challenges? How can we overcome these challenges? And, when can this be done? This is the question the Fishing Industry is asking for peace of mind?
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