On the ground, the women of this tropical area meet to repair the torn nets, to sort the catches of the day and prepare their harvests for the market.
Among them, Christina Guevarra, who gently releases a blue swimming crab from her net. “From February to May, we are grateful,” she told the UN before International Tropical Day marked every year on June 29. “But after these months, especially when the rainy season begins, we have to find other ways to win. »»
Christina Guevarra removes the crabs from fishing nets.
Simple but difficult life
Christina’s family, like many others in Sasmuan, is based on the river bonus, an increasingly threatened livelihood by the drop in fish populations and environmental degradation.
“It is difficult in coastal communities like ours because we depend so much on the harvests of the river,” she said. “Life for us, the fishermen, is simple, but it is also difficult. »»
For generations, the local population depends on the coastal wetlands of the Sasmuan Pampanga, which is part of a watershed that drains in Manila bay.
But pollution, poor waste management and unsustainable practices are now endangering its biodiversity and the local economy.
“The waste we see in the river also comes from communities upstream,” said Irene Villar, deputy chief of Pampanga’s Environment and Natural Resources Office. “Even with an appropriate provision and policies of waste, the application remains a challenge.”
Edna Bilacog and Rose Ann Tungol supported their families as waste segregators.
To solve these problems, the Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) project which is funded by the Global environmental installationimplemented by the United Nations Development Program (Predict) has established a partnership with the Provincial Government of Pampenga and local groups to promote sustainable practices, in particular not only on the conservation of sailors, but also on edifying vulnerable communities, especially women.
In Sasmuan, women like Edna Bilacog and Rose Ann Tungol find work in a material recovery installation, sorting household waste. Their salary, around 175 pesos per day (US $ 4), is well below the local minimum wage. “What we are barely gaining from our needs,” they admit, but their work helps support their families.
Net gain
Others, like Maricar Guevarra, relied on traditional crafts. A weaver qualified for over 20 years, she earns about $ 4 per repaired net and $ 13 for a big known as a pumpkinwhich takes four days to finish. “It was my main source of income, especially when my husband fell ill,” she said. To reach both ends, she also makes the laundry and sells homemade meals.
Women also lead the crab trade, disentiling the crustaceans of the nets and preparing them in the market, although the unsustainable aquaculture of neighboring fish ponds threatens their livelihood. In response, many have diversified. During the dead, they work as aid, workers or store employees in neighboring cities.
The blue swimming crab is abundant in the coastal wetland of the Sasmuan Pampanga.
In the village of Batang 2nd, a group of women transforms the Purslane Sea, a bad shore, in Athara (Marinated salad), on the continent, Patricia Culala built a business around the crab paste. “The fat of the crab is the tastiest part-that’s what I preserve and sells in bottles,” she explained. “Thanks to this company, I was able to send my children to school.”
Sasmuan’s women are both resilient and innovative. But without lasting solutions, their future remains uncertain. Fair wages, the conservation led by the community and the management of responsible rivers are essential to preserve the wetlands and the lives they nourish.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
