STORY: Solar-powered fish preservation transforms livelihoods in Kenya's coastal region
SHOOTING TIME: July 4, 2024
DATELINE: July 9, 2024
LENGTH: 0:03:34
LOCATION: Nairobi
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the village
2. various of the solar system plant
3. various of hub
4. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JAMES ADEN, Manager of Mwazaro SolCoolDry system
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): JAMES ADEN, Manager of Mwazaro SolCoolDry system
6. various of solar system
7. SOUNDBITE 3 (Swahili): SAUMU SALIM ABDALLAH, Local fishmonger
8. SOUNDBITE 4 (Swahili): MWALULU BAKARI IDDI, Local fishmonger

STORYLINE:

In Kwale County, along Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline, the Mwazaro Solar Cooling and Drying (SolCoolDry) system is introducing modern fish preservation methods to local fishermen.

The solar-powered system includes an ice production unit with a capacity of up to 1.5 tons of ice per day and a drying system with two beds, each two meters wide and 24 meters long, for preserving fish and other agricultural products.

The facility aims to reduce post-harvest fish losses for the community, which relies heavily on the Indian Ocean for their livelihoods.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JAMES ADEN, Manager of the Mwazaro SolCoolDry system"Now, this is the ice-making machine. It taps its power from the solar, so with solar we are a hundred percent off grid. Now, once the ice has been made, it is now released into this ice chamber. The ice chamber has its own cooling system so that we can now sell it (the ice) to the customers at ten shillings per kg. This is how our ice looks like."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): JAMES ADEN, Manager of the Mwazaro SolCoolDry system
"Because it is from safe water, so we can use it for direct consumption, but also we can use it to preserve fish. So you see it is a very good project because even though we run out of the mains (grid), we still can run our project, our operations here because we don't depend on the main grid."

The project has completely transformed the way local fishmongers operate.

SOUNDBITE 3 (Swahili): SAUMU SALIM ABDALLAH, Local fishmonger
"Before, our fishermen would haul in their catch from the ocean, but because of the long distance to the market, the fish would often spoil. But now, they grab some ice right after fishing, and that keeps the fish fresh all the way to the market."

SOUNDBITE 4 (Swahili): MWALULU BAKARI IDDI, Local fishmonger
"Here, you can see our ice-making plant system. Before, when we went fishing in the ocean, we often had issues with fish spoiling. Now, thanks to this project, we've got a solution to our fish preservation challenges."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Nairobi.
(XHTV)