1. The Fifth Session of the Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA) was held at the FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) in Accra, Ghana, from 16–19 December 1997.
2. On behalf of the Director-General of FAO, Mr Jacques Diouf, the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Mr Bamidele F. Dada welcomed the members of the Working Party and declared the session open on 16 December 1997 at 10.30 hours. Present at the opening session was the Deputy Regional Representative and FAO Representative in Ghana, Mr J.-P. Eckebil.
3. In his opening remarks he pointed out that the Working Party, in its 12 years of existence, had made major achievements in outlining the scientific bases for water pollution control and management and for evaluating the state of African aquatic environment by reviewing the major groups of pollutants that could have negative impacts on aquatic life and fishery resources.
4. Mr Dada recalled that the 10th Session of CIFA in November 1997 decided to abolish five of its subsidiary bodies, including the Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries, in concurrence with a resolution of the 29th Session of the FAO Conference which also requested a higher degree of self-sufficiency of all Regional Fishery Bodies. He therefore invited the Working Party to consider how the continuation of its important work could be ensured.
5. Mr C. Biney was unanimously elected Chairman of the Session. He introduced the agenda (Appendix A), welcomed the members (listed in Appendix B) and referred to the working documents (listed in Appendix C).
6. Mr H. Naeve, Technical Secretary of the Working Party reported that the document “Review of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Substances in the African Aquatic Environment”, prepared during the Fourth Session, had been published as an Annex to FAO Fisheries Report No. 502.
7. Subsequently all technical reports of the first four sessions had been collated and published as CIFA Technical Paper No. 25, “Review of Pollution in the African Environment”. In December 1994, Mr C. Biney, the Chairman of the Working Party, delivered a report on the work achieved by the Working Party to the CIFA Seminar on African Inland Fisheries, Aquaculture and the Environment, held in Harare, Zimbabwe.
8. The Chairman recalled that the CIFA Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries, at its fourth session, Accra, Ghana, 18–22 October 1993 took note that eutrophication was an emerging problem for most African lakes, even for the largest among them. This phenomenon is mainly caused by the increase in phosphorus loads, since, as in the majority of other lakes in the world, phosphorus is the limiting factor for primary production. The Working Party, therefore, felt that a report on the phosphorus problem in African lakes, including actual data on phosphorus concentrations, sources and loads, as well as other limnological information, was desirable. Such a report would also include a review of models and coefficients used in the world to calculate phosphorus loads from non-point sources and would attempt to adapt to the specific African conditions, thus providing a necessary tool for lake water quality management.
9. The Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa, at its ninth session, Harare, Zimbabwe, 5–9 December 1994, took note of the suggestions made by the Working Party and endorsed them, thus charging the Working Party to deal, at its fifth session, with the phosphorus problems in African lakes.
10. The Technical Secretary pointed out that a summary paper on Eutrophication in African lakes with particular reference to phosphorus loading had been prepared by Messrs W.R. Harding and J.A. Thornton. The Working Party noted with regret that both authors were unable to attend the session. It was noted, however with appreciation that they had declared their willingness to continue to serve on the Working Party and to incorporate additional information and data provided by the members at the Working Party and to subsequently prepare a draft final document for consideration.
11. Regional reports on phosphorus problems, prepared by Mr M.A.H. Saad for Northern Africa, by Mr A.M. Kouassi for Western Africa, by Mr F.W.B. Bugenyi for Eastern Africa and by Mr C.H.D. Magadza on Southern Africa, were presented.
12. The Working Party concluded that although substantive progress had been made in compiling information on phosphorus loading of African lakes, some specific data had still to be retrieved and entered in the appropriate data sheets distributed in advance of the session. Accordingly, the Working Party felt that the document on eutrophication of African lakes could not be finalized during the session. It therefore decided to attach to the report of its session an interim summary statement on the issue (Appendix D).
13. The Chairman introduced the paper “Phosphorus Modelling of African Lakes” by Messrs J.A. Thornton and W.R. Harding. The paper was received with great interest and discussed in detail.
14. The Working Party agreed that data sets compiled on African lakes, once finalized, should be sent to the authors for further verification of the applicability of the models in Africa. In addition, it was considered extremely useful for reference copies of the Wisconsin Lake Model Spreadsheet (WILMS) to be made available to the members of the Working Party to allow them to work on their own data and thus get acquainted with the use of such models.
15. In view of the general importance of the paper by Messrs Harding and Thornton as an introduction to modelling phosphorus loadings, the Working Party decided to include it in its report as Appendix E.
16. Noting that the Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries had been formally abolished by CIFA, members agreed to continue to work on an ad hoc basis towards the finalization of a technical paper on phosphorus loadings and eutrophication in African lakes. That paper should consist of:
A summary of the phosphorus situation in Africa, based on Working Document No. 3;
Chapters with specific descriptions on a regional basis, based on Working Documents No. 4–7;
A chapter on modelling, based on Working Document No. 8, using data from different African regions;
Conclusions and recommendations;
An annex with data sets.
17. To that end it was agreed that:
All members, in addition to the information and data presented at the session, would make efforts to identify additional data sets and submit them not later that 31 March 1998 to the Technical Secretary, preferably in electronic form, i.e. by E-mail or on diskettes;
Messrs W.R. Harding and J.A. Thornton be invited to prepare a final draft of the technical paper, as outlined above, by 31 July 1998;
the draft final paper by circulated for comments and eventual approval to all members of the Working Party.
18. Future activities on pollution and fisheries, beyond the tasks listed above, would depend on decisions by the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA) and on appropriate ad hoc arrangements for related intersessional work and funding.
19. In that context the Working Party considered that phosphorus and nitrogen, representing the main nutrients, are among the chemicals which might dramatically affect the aquatic environment. Because their inputs are much influenced by different anthropogenic activities, the review of their sources loads and distribution in the African lake is a must. As the review of phosphorus was already carried out, it is highly recommended to review also the nitrogenous forms (partners of the phosphorus forms) in order to cover the whole problem of eutrophication in the African lakes.
20. The Working Party reviewed the draft report of the session and approved its submission to CIFA. Editorial changes were left to the Secretariat.
21. Mr H. Naeve thanked the members of the Working Party for their work and congratulated them for their achievement. The Chairman, Mr C. Biney closed the session at 15.00 hours on Friday, 19 December 1997.
