WOMEN AND WATER IN MALAWI. An Ill-suited Couple

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A crocodile at Nyika Croco Farm, in Senga Bay (Salima District). The crocodiles farmed here are Nilo Crocodiles, the same ones that inhabit the Shire River and other rivers in Malawi. There are 17.000 crocodiles in the farm and the skins of the vast majority are sold to foreign countries (mainly to European ones) to make clothes, belts, bags and wallets. The biggest ones can weight up to 500 Kg. And the last data that workers have (unofficially) is that the price for one square centimeter is around 10 USD.
Some locals report that last year two crocodiles from the farm escaped and appeared in Lake Malawi (some meters far from the farm), where they killed two people in the beach. The farm workers say this never happened.
The Shire River, that flows out of Lake Malawi and into Zambezi River, the longest one in Malawi with 402 Km, is a source of water for women in the area, who use it for domestic purposes. The Shire is as well the most important source of incomes for people living in its banks (fishermen, traders, farmers), but is also a home to killer crocodiles. Ten people were attacked by crocodiles in 2006 only in Chinduzi area, according to Mr. Alayanga, member of the Main Committee of The Gravity Fed Pipped Water Supply Skim and a villager in the area. They are mostly women and girls who, obliged by tradition, go to the river every day to fetch water, wash the clothes or have a bath.