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Bad weather destroyed fishermen boats in Manado

Manado, Ekuatorial – More than dozens of fishing boats heavily destroyed by rain and storm for the past two days, said a fisherman on Tuesday (30/12), in Manado, North Sulawesi.

“There is a total of 30 fishing boats [being destroyed by rains and storms] but only seven were complete wreckage. We couldn’t do nothing as those locations provided by the government were not suitable for fishermen to tie up their boats,” said Sonny Broo, head of Firdaus Fisherman Group, of Sario Tumpaan sub-district, Sario district, Manado to Ekuatorial.com. The boats were tied up at the reclamation area of Megamas Manado.

Broo said that there was an agreement with Manado Mayor Vicky Lumentut which had promised to built a dock with 110 meters long and 20 meters wide. “But, they only realized 60 meters long with less than 20 meters wide. As a result, the dock could not accommodate our boats,” he said. “In addition, tides managed to slam the dock destroying our boats.”

At the end of 1990s, Manado government had given permit for developer to conduct reclamation along 1.5 kilometer coastline. It had resulted for hundreds of fishermen to lose their docks which have been turned into luxurious buildings, stores and shopping malls. In order to go to the sea, fishermen have to walk 300 meters to enter reclamation area to dock their boats. Up to date, there area 70 fishermen located in Megamas reclamation areas.

“This condition is clearly a blow for us [fishermen]. Because, before reclamation, our boats were docked near our houses so when big tides coming in, we were able to monitor and rescue them. But, now the place is hundreds of meter far, our boats were already destroyed by tides even before we get there,” said Broo.

Besides destroying fishermen boats, tides and strong winds with rains have also damaging more than dozens of restaurants located in Manado coastline.

In a separate place, Farid Mufti, a staff of Manado Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics, warmed local residents for more bad weather. “Current rain occurring as an indirect impact from tropical depression which is an early stage for tropical cyclone in the Philippines. Tropical depression in the Philippines contributes to forming more clouds in North Sulawesi,” said Mufti adding rainfall can reach up to 50 millimeter or heavy intensity. Yoseph Ikanubun

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