The Second Session of the Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, upon the kind invitation of UNEP's Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme Activity Centre (OCA/PAC).
On behalf of the Director-General of FAO, Mr Edouard Saouma, and the Assistant Director-General (Fisheries), Mr Armin Lindquist, Mr H. Naeve, Senior Fishery Resources Officer (Environment) of FAO, Rome, opened the session at 14.00 hours on 23 October 1989 and welcomed the members of the Working Party and observers from the Kenya Fisheries Department, Nairobi, the Lake Basin Development Authority, Kisumu, and the UNEP Water and Lithosphere Unit, Nairobi.
Mr Anthony Imevbore was unanimously elected Chairman of the session. He introduced the agenda (Annex I), welcomed the participants (listed in Annex II), and referred to the working papers (listed in Annex III).
The Chairman referred to Chapter 6 (proposals for future activities) of the report of the first session of the Working Party, held in Accra, Ghana, from 16 to 20 June 1986 (FAO Fish.Rep., 369) and invited the Technical Secretary, Mr H. Naeve, to report on progress made. Mr Naeve summarized the intersessional work as follows:
Preparation of reviews
The paper on Scientific Bases for Pollution Control in African Inland Waters, prepared during the first session of the Working Party and annexed to its report, has been published in Chemistry and Ecology, Vol.3, pages 49–74 (1987).
A paper on organic loads with high biological and chemical oxygen demand was prepared by Mr Massoud A.H. Saad. The paper was circulated to a number of scientists in the region for comments. This paper and the comments received constitute the working documents of this session.
No additional national reports on aquatic pollution in inland waters were received.
The request for ecotoxicological profiles on the most widely used pesticides has been superseded by a number of recent publications and information compiled by the IRPTC, the WHO/IPCS, the EEC, and the U.S. EPA.
Research projects
Apart from inclusion of freshwater fish in the monitoring programme of some laboratories participating in project WACAF/2 (Monitoring of Pollution in the Marine Environment of the West and Central African Region), no progress has been made in this field for various reasons.
Regional projects
The first session of the Working Party had identified as priority activities a subregional project on the state of the environment of Lake Tanganyika and a seminar on scientific bases for aquatic pollution management. FAO did undertake to identify sources of funding for these projects, so far, however, without success.
The Working Party decided to return to this subject at a later stage during its session (see Chapter 4).
A draft document on this subject was presented by Mr Massoud A.H. Saad, together with comments received from members of the Working Party and from some other African scientists. The paper and comments were thoroughly discussed. While agreeing with the approach taken, a number of amendments were included in the document and information was added on the specific situation in different parts of Africa. The amended document, the final editing of which was left to Mr Massoud A.H. Saad and the Secretariat, is attached to this report as Annex IV. The Working Party requested the Secretariat to look into the possibility of publishing this paper in a scientific journal to give it a wide distribution.
So far the Working Party has prepared 2 papers on Scientific Bases for Pollution Control in African Inland Waters, dealing with strategies to control toxic substances and organic loads. The Working Party agreed that a third paper, dealing with metals in the aquatic environment, should be prepared. Mr C. Biney agreed to prepare the first draft of that document.
The Working Party noted that the seventh session of CIFA, held in December 1987 in Accra, listed Aquatic Pollution as one of the topics for future symposia to be held in connection with its sessions. The Working Party therefore recommends that a symposium on pollution and fisheries be held in connection with the ninth session of CIFA. Examples for topics to be covered would be national reports on the state of the aquatic environment, studies on toxic effects of pollutants on African fish species, biological and chemical monitoring of aquatic pollution and hazard assessment as a tool for aquatic environment management.
Lake Tanganyika, which had been proposed during the first session of the Working Party for a subregional project on aquatic pollution, was retained to be a valid specific example. Noting that the fifteenth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme included “Protection of the quality of freshwater resources” in their areas of concentration, with special attention to be paid to “Management of shared freshwater resources”, the Working Party recommended that CIFA should closely liaise with that programme in order to ensure that water quality and quantity issues relevant to fisheries development and aquaculture are duly taken into account.
The Working Party reviewed the draft report of the session and approved it for submission to CIFA. Editorial changes were left to the Secretariat.
The members of the Working Party thanked UNEP for hosting the session and commented on the efficiency with which its staff had assisted the meeting. The Chairman, Mr A. Imevbore, closed the session on Friday, 27 October 1989 at 10.00 hours.
