Algeria-Based Fish Farm Supplies Tilapia to Sahrawi Camps in Tindouf Desert
A seven-year-old aquaculture project in Tindouf province raises 48,000 tilapia to provide seafood for more than 170,000 Sahrawis living in exile.
csmonitor.comAn aquaculture project in Algeria’s Tindouf province now supplies tilapia to residents of Sahrawi refugee camps where fresh seafood is otherwise scarce. Every year Damba Mohamad drives 800 kilometers from Rabouni to Zouérat, Mauritania, to buy croaker or hake fish for resale inside the camps.
The long trip is necessary because the Sahrawi people were expelled from their land in 1975 when Spain withdrew from Spanish Sahara and Morocco began occupying the territory.
More than 170,000 Sahrawis live in the camps, where summer temperatures can exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit. With seafood difficult to obtain, a fish farm raising red and black tilapia was launched seven years ago in Esmara within the camps. The ponds hold about 48,000 fish.
Most of the harvest is distributed to people living in the camps, including patients at the hospital. Biologist Jadiya Nafe stood beside tanks containing tilapia at the fish farm in N’khaila. She recalled the inauguration on February 28, 2019.
“We wanted to show that even in these conditions, opportunities can still be created,” she said. A technician examined a pond while monitoring fish growth. A tanker delivers water to the camps. Tilapia is harvested from the ponds of the fish farm.
