The Wider Image: Fishermen cry foul as China bids to fix drought-hit lake
Fan Xinde, a 36-year old fisherman, holds a copper coin that was found in debris scooped from the bed of a dwindling river that feeds China's biggest freshwater lake, the Poyang, in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China, December 10, 2019. On Jan. 1 2020, China will ban fishing in environmentally sensitive regions along the Yangtze, China's longest river, and by the start of 2021, fishing throughout the Poyang itself will be prohibited for at least 10 years.
Fan, who has worked half his life on the lake, said he and as many as 100,000 other fishermen were being unfairly blamed for mounting local environmental problems and must now find other ways to make a living.
"Our sources of income have been cut off. We don't have anything else," he said. "To be honest, we shouldn't be collecting the coins at all because they are owned by the state, but it is only a tiny amount." REUTERS/Aly Song