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No return in sight for fish farmers in Situ Gintung
Slippery suckers: A resident of the Situ Gintung area holds fish in his hands
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Slippery suckers: A resident of the Situ Gintung area holds fish in his hands. Many locals scrambled to catch fish after the dam burst last week. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
More than one hundred fish farmers, grouped together as the Petani Jaring Apung Budi Daya Air Tawar (Pejabat), have to swallow a bitter pill following the collapse of the Situ Gintung dam.
“We suffered a total of Rp 1.55 billion (US$135,000) in losses and we have reported it to the Banten provincial Fishery Agency,” Pejabat secretary Isdarman, told The Jakarta Post at Pulau Gintung recently.
He said Pejabat had a total of 108 members and 427 floating bamboo cages (keramba), locally known as waring. The farmers raised nila and mujair (types of tilapia), patin (catfish) and gurami (freshwater carp) in the southern waters of the lake.
“The group members depend on the fish crops, which account for 70 percent of the groups income, because they don’t have other jobs to feed their families,” Isdarman, who is also a teacher at a state junior high school, said.
“In June, we planned to have a harvest of some 10 tons of fish but the fish have gone missing. Only the waring remained on the floor of the lake but they have been damaged too and can no longer be used,” he added.
Isdarman and three other neighbours — Komarudin, Triyanto and Supodo — began to raise fish in the floating bamboo cages in 2002.
Their success in raising the fish was mimicked by other locals.
Isdarman and his fellow farmers established Pejabat in August last year due to the increasing number of fish farmers.
“Both the Tangerang regency and the Banten provincial administrations have acknowledged the presence of the Situ Gintung fish farmer group,” he said.
He added that the farmers started the fish farming business with their own money but that in Dec. 2002 the Banten Fishery Agency gave them Rp 20 million to help improve their business.
“We used all the money to buy more fish and to increase the number of waring so that we could have more crops,” he said.
Just a few hours after Friday’s flash flood, people scrambled to catch fish scattered around the flood site.
Rudin, 30, one of the fish farmers, said he had six waring and none of the fish remained after 1 million cubic meters of the lake’s water was released in just 30 minutes.
He said he could earn between Rp 2 million and Rp 3 million a month from the fish, which he sold directly to buyers who came to the lake.
“We don’t know what to do now. We just hope that the government will soon rebuild the collapsed embankment so that we can resume fish farming as soon as possible,”
Ipong, another farmer, said the farmers hoped the government would provide cash aid for them to start over.
