Good roads needed to reach shores

Manama : The fishermen shared their grievances with DT News saying that they had requested the authorities to open roads for them to easily reach the bay over the past few years, but their pleas were unheard.
They now have to drive one unpaved road to reach the shore of Jidali. One of the fishermen told that the road is sandy and there’s a risk of their trucks getting stuck in it, considering the heavy weights they transport.
Additionally, Buhassan accused the Capital General Secretariat (formerly municipality) of targeting the fishermen and depriving them from benefiting from the bounties of the sea.
He claimed that an inspector of the secretariat is preventing them from collecting the seaweed because of a personal grudge against one of the fishermen and not due to environmental as claimed.
“He closed the roads to the bay near Jidali more than one time in the past few years. Last year he closed the only road leading to the coast, while we were in the water, locking us inside the area,” Buhassan alleged.
In a recent development, the same inspector on Saturday fined the fishermen with BD800 for disposing waste on the shore. A BD50 fine was given to each driver of the 16 trucks that were on the shore that day.
“The inspector claims that we are harming the environment by disposing waste on the shores. We collect all of our trash in one spot away from the shore, making the municipality cleaners’ job easier, as they only have to pick it up from one place. We informed the cleaners about that and we reached to an agreement with them. We are not harming the environment. How could we harm marine life, while we depend on the sea for a living,” Buhassan said.
The irritated man added, “In fact, I have personally seen the municipality cleaners disposing of waste on the shores and warned them multiple times about their acts. The inspector was informed about it, but he denied in spite of showing him footage proving my claims.”
DT News asked a couple of local fishermen about whether collecting these seaweeds is harmful to the environment. Their opinions were split, as many of them said that it’s harmless to the environment, while others insisted that it drains
Tubli Bay of natural food for fish.