diff --git a/bob/__init__.py b/bob/__init__.py
index 60381ea9b78a067c402bf65368cc63241b0d7456..2ab1e28b150f0549def9963e9e87de3fdd6b2579 100644
--- a/bob/__init__.py
+++ b/bob/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-#see http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools#namespace-packages
-__import__('pkg_resources').declare_namespace(__name__)
+# see https://docs.python.org/3/library/pkgutil.html
+from pkgutil import extend_path
+__path__ = extend_path(__path__, __name__)
diff --git a/bob/bio/__init__.py b/bob/bio/__init__.py
index 60381ea9b78a067c402bf65368cc63241b0d7456..2ab1e28b150f0549def9963e9e87de3fdd6b2579 100644
--- a/bob/bio/__init__.py
+++ b/bob/bio/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-#see http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools#namespace-packages
-__import__('pkg_resources').declare_namespace(__name__)
+# see https://docs.python.org/3/library/pkgutil.html
+from pkgutil import extend_path
+__path__ = extend_path(__path__, __name__)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 174cd090f99bda7a191271ebfce133b769413ff1..f50a4f2ef255ce121c6b4fdaac7a885cdbf46c37 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -80,10 +80,7 @@ setup(
     # Our database packages are good examples of namespace implementations
     # using several layers. You can check them out here:
     # https://github.com/idiap/bob/wiki/Satellite-Packages
-    namespace_packages = [
-      'bob',
-      'bob.bio',
-    ],
+
 
     # This entry defines which scripts you will have inside the 'bin' directory
     # once you install the package (or run 'bin/buildout'). The order of each