SHAH ALAM, 3 Apr: A mechanism to generate an alternative source of income should be created to ensure that fishermen’s salaries are not affected in the event they fail to go out to sea.

The Executive Councillor in charge of Welfare, Rodziah Ismail, suggested this opinion after finding that fishermen were terrible affected because they could not go out to sea due to the haze.

“Unlike other occupations, fishermen depend on the weather to go out to make a living.

“Last month, they faced the threat of haze. As a result, they lost their source of income for almost a month.

“Problems like this should be viewed holistically and not just reactively. When there is a new problem, we have to think of a way to solve it,” she explained to Selangor Kini.

She said that fishermen have to undergo modernising changes so that they do not rely heavily on fishing activities.

“Every year, the country is hit by haze and it is likely to happen again in the future. This does not include weather problems or storms.

“If they are programmed with additional skills, it could be a financial source if they fail to go out to sea. So, the issue of their source of income being cut of will no longer repeat,” she said.