FLORES, Indonesia (Asia Water Wire) – None of Satar Lenda's 5,000 residents know who initiated the practice and when, but they say they have always gone to the Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers, which flow through the subdistrict, to catch shrimps and eels for their consumption.

On bright sunny days during the dry season, adult males in Satar Lenda in Manggarai regency, situated in the western end of Flores in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province, would head for the two rivers with hand-woven rattan entrapments or fishing baits.

They do the same during the rainy season, especially when the rivers swell and their waters turn murky.  Local people believe that shrimps cannot live in murky water, while eels swim towards the river banks to trap insects.

But their catch is decreasing each year, and the shrimps and eels they catch are also becoming smaller in size. Still, these are what most of Satar Lendar's residents rely on for their daily nutritional needs. If they are fortunate, their catch would also consist of crabs, clams and oysters.

"It is getting harder to catch shrimps and eels nowadays," complained 54-year-old Hubertus Nantik, a resident of Nikeng, one of the villages in Satar Lenda subdistrict.

"We would be lucky if we catch two kilogrammes of shrimps and eels in a day," he said, adding that up until the early 1990s, he would bring home four to five kilogrammes of shrimps and eels in just three or four hours of fishing.

Marselinus Rancik, another Nikeng villager, blamed the depleting catch on residents who use electric wire to stun shrimps and eels day and night in Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers. "More and more people use electric wires to catch both small and big shrimps and eels," said Rancik.

Local authorities, however, pointed out that residents have only themselves to blame for the sharp decrease in the stocks of shrimps and eels over the past years.

"The people have been over-ishing and destroying the ecosystem," said Fabianus Hadur, village head of Nikeng.

For the past years, local residents, including Nikeng villagers, have cleared tens of hectares of forested areas near the sources of Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers for dry-land farming. To date, farmers in Satar Lenda and virtually throughout Manggarai regency practice the slash-and-burn method in clearing land for farming. Local authorities, however, have allowed the practice to flourish as most farmers clear their own ancestral lands. Manggarai farmers usually plant coffee and turmeric, which prove to be unable to hold water
during the rainy season.

Logging activities have also become rampant in the upstream of both Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers. Almost all trees around the sources of Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo have been cut down by well-connected local people. Timber logs collected are exported to neighbouring subdistricts.

Manggarai residents also use the logs to construct houses or stores. Most houses in Manggarai, especially in villages, are built of wood, although a few are of cement.

Massive land clearance and unbridled logging activities have adversely reduced the water volumes of both Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers to the level that it is impossible for all living creatures in the rivers to breed and multiply. In fact, some sections of the rivers completely dry up during the dry season from March to October.

"Generally, Manggarai people think that natural resources such as water are God's gifts and that nature will take care of itself," said Tarsi Humarli, programme manager of Ayo Indonesia, a non-governmental organisation focusing on water and road construction projects in Manggarai. "With their wrong belief, Manggarai people are not motivated to take care of the natural resources."

In the early 1980s, children under 10 years old could not cross the Wae Aweng and Wae Ntijo rivers without being assisted by an adult companion even during the dry season. Also in the past during the rainy season, the rivers swelled only after three days of incessant rain and they shrunk seven or eight days after the rain had stopped.

Now, however, the rivers have little water during the dry season, and during the rainy season they swell even in the first few hours of heavy rain, but shrink four of five hours after the rain stops.

Uncontrolled land clearance and logging activities have caused unprecedented landslides in the subdistrict. Landslides have become rampant in forested areas along Wae Aweng, blocking the flow of the river for months and even years. The biggest one took place in 2001 near Wae Rebo village, which is located near Wae Aweng's source.

The landslide blocked Wae Aweng's flow for almost one year and when the obstruction naturally broke down in early 2002, it created flash floods that killed dozens of buffaloes staying along the river banks.

Regency wide, landslides triggered by massive land clearance and logging activities have increased in the past few years.

The latest data from Manggarai regency showed that the number of landslides soared to 940 in 2004, up from 360 in 2003 and 324 in 2002. The number of people affected also increased from 1,775 families in 2002 to 1,886 families in 2003 and 4,667 in 2004. At least seven persons were killed in landslides in Manggarai in 2002, 12 in 2003 and 11 in 2004.

The solution to the falling shrimp and eel catch, however, may be on its way, at least partially.

The Catholic Church, which commands significant influence in the regency where almost 80 percent of more than 500,000 residents are Catholics, is mulling over requiring would-be Manggarai brides and grooms to plant trees before getting married. Many Manggarai residents marry as early as 18 due to lack of education and local traditions.

"The church is seriously considering requiring Manggarai residents who want to tie the knot to plant trees before they receive the sacrament of marriage," said local Catholic leader Frans Salesman.

Salesman, also the head of the Manggarai Development Planning Agency, is sitting in a steering committee for a synod of local Catholic leaders to be held in August. The synod delves on various issues faced by Manggarai residents, including forest destruction and water shortage.

According to Salesman, all committee members, including priests, nuns and lay leaders, are close to approving a draft agreement that, among others, requires Manggarai residents to plant teak and mahogany trees before getting married.

The plan has multiple goals. Besides preventing landslides and increasing the water volume in the regency's rivers, it is also a way to generate income for the local people.

"Once it is big enough, each teak or mahogany tree costs at least 3 million rupiah ( 333 U.S. dollars)," Salesman said, adding that planting teak or mahogany trees can support a child's education in Manggarai. (END/AWW/IPSAP/RD/LC/JS/140706)