OFF THE BEAT with Jowit Saluseki –
TO most tourism enthusiasts, Samfya district, which is located less than an hour’s drive from Mansa district in Luapula Province, is just one of their favourite holiday destinations.
But for Bright Mukuka of Samfya, the numbers of holiday makers that troop to the area have provided an informal job opportunity for his braii business which he is slowly popularising on the beautiful white sandy beaches of Lake Bangweulu.
The 32-year -old father of three has devised a way of making a living in the rural part of the country where chances of clinching a formal job are few and far between.
Mukaka roasts fresh fish at a fee for holiday makers on the shores of Lake Bangweulu.
He has been in the informal business for just over a year now.
With his braii stand strategically positioned next to the AJC WaterFront, Mukuka is able to woo a number of clients who trek to Lake Bangweulu especially on weekends and holidays.
On a daily basis, Mukuka, who is also a fisherman, strategically positions his braii stand at the shores of the lake before he starts to clean the fish in readiness to roast his catch.
While most of his peers constantly look to those in corridors of power to offer them jobs, Mukuka, whose only personal belongings are a fish net, a boat, charcoal and a simple braii stand, on a good day is able to retire home with K300.
On a bad day he knocks off with between K50 and K150 depending on each day’s catch.
Mukuka is among the hordes of young people who have literally descended on Lake Bangweulu to make a living from its treasured fish species.
His only appeal is for a well-wisher to buy him a small banana boat and some fish nets to boost his already flourishing business.
However, much as he is making a living through the informal sector, skeptics say the likes of Mukuka, who traverse the waters of Lake Bangweulu on a daily basis, are slowly depleting the fish in the waters because of their unorthodox fishing methods.
Touted as the next big thing in terms of tourism attraction and holiday destination, Samfya district is renowned for hosting the Lake Bangweulu, among several tourism sites.
Bangweulu — meaning ‘where the water meets the sky’ in one of the local languages – is one of the world’s great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.
Situated in the upper Congo River basin in Luapula Province, the Bangweulu system covers an almost completely flat area roughly the size of Connecticut in the United States (US).
The lake is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the bird life of a much larger region, and faces environmental stress and conservation issues
According to marine experts, with a long axis of 75 kilometres (km) and a width of up to 40km, Lake Bangweulu’s permanent open water surface is about 3,000 km², which expands when its swamps and floodplains are in flood at the end of the rainy season in May.
The combined area of the lake and wetlands reaches 15,000 km².
The lake has an average depth of only four metres.
The Bangweulu system is fed by about 17 rivers, of which the Chambeshi (the source of the Congo River) is the largest, and is drained by the Luapula River.
A notable feature of the Bangweulu system is a series of parallel sandy ridges running south-west to north-east.
These are particularly striking in satellite photographs and are easily seen along the north western shore, the Lifunge Peninsula, Mbalala Island, Chilubi Island, and the Kapata Peninsula.
They divide the lake into three sections parallel to its main axis.
One divides a section called Lake Chifunabuli, 50km long but only 5km wide.
Its entrance through a gap in the sand spits at the end of Lifunge Peninsula is only 250m wide.
Another sandy ridge, Mbabala Island, divides off a section called Lake Walilupe about 30km long by 13km wide.
The main, middle section of the lake between Ifunge and Mbabala is known only as Bangweulu.
With construction of a K600 million Samfya international convention centre by the Workers Compensation Fund Control Board (WCFCB) on the shores of Lake Bangweulu expected to commence soon, the area is poised to become a major tourist attraction.
When the board participated in the 2017 Luapula exposition, the local provincial administration requested the Ndola headquartered WCFCB to consider tapping into the tourism potential of the area.
This was by way of coming up with an international convention centre which will comprise a hotel and shopping mall, among other things.
In November last year, President Edgar Lungu officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the centre.
The Samfya international convention facility will be perched on the beautiful shores of Lake Bangweulu overlooking the waters.
