Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and his family. Malaria and tuberculosis are both common potentially
life-threatening illnesses, and both can be controlled using medicines that
are cheap by Western standards, but even the most basic treatments can
be prohibitively expensive. There will be an increasing pressure on the
people of the Quirimbas to i nd ways of earning cash so that they can deal
with these emergencies and also so that they have the freedom to buy the
consumer goods that are becoming available.
Based on this analysis, four basic needs can be identii ed that could
begin to address the potential problems in the Quirimbas:
Education
The general level of education is very low, particularly for
women. Boys generally receive a few years of education and learn to read,
write and speak Portuguese. Many girls are educated for less than one
year and remain illiterate. It is important that all children are educated to
a standard where they are literate and able to access educational materi-
als and the media. Children should either be given a i rm grounding in
Portuguese (whilst it is ensured that local languages and cultures are not
suppressed), or educational materials, radio programmes and newspapers
should be produced in local languages, particularly Kimwani, which is the
main island language and is marginalized at present. It would, of course,
be ideal to give children both of these opportunities. If people were given
the opportunity to reach a higher level of education the ecological and eco-
nomic arguments for them to conserve their own resources may be more
easily communicated. A higher level of education may also of er people
the opportunity to i nd employment other than i shing and invertebrate
collection and would make people more employable in service industries
that will accompany the development of tourism. Literate, Portuguese-
speaking Quirimban residents could then by employed in the inevitable
tourist developments, rather than imported labour from the cities as has
happened elsewhere.
Legislation
The ever-increasing numbers of itinerant i shers in the
Archipelago need to be regulated in some way. On some of the smaller
islands in the Archipelago every available space is covered with their
makeshift shelters. All are there both to catch i sh to sustain their family
over the wet season and also to make a proi t selling their i sh inland.
Without some sort of limit or regulation this component of the i shery
could lead to its decline. This problem may be one that has to be addressed
at its source, in the majority of cases in Nampula, and is therefore in
essence a political problem requiring political will to solve. Social or envi-
ronmental problems that have forced these i shers to look outside their
province for additional income on such a huge scale need to be addressed
