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/learn/__init__.py b/bob/learn/__init__.py
index 60381ea9b78a067c402bf65368cc63241b0d7456..2ab1e28b150f0549def9963e9e87de3fdd6b2579 100644
--- a/bob/learn/__init__.py
+++ b/bob/learn/__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 59c087893b3da2910f71a9bf952471b7ad253df6..48f2711a08e256910f6a0692ce3ca7dae392623e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -37,10 +37,7 @@ setup(
     setup_requires = build_requires,
     install_requires = build_requires,
 
-    namespace_packages=[
-      "bob",
-      "bob.learn",
-    ],
+
 
     ext_modules = [
       Extension("bob.learn.activation.version",