KARACHI, Oct 7: Speakers at an international conference held here on Thursday called for early steps to save the Indus Delta region, mainly inhabited by fishermen communities, from further degradation.

They said the degradation had been mainly caused by a reduction in fresh water into the delta due to wrong policies of the government, which had over-exploited the Indus River by constructing several storage dams and barrages on it.

They urged the government to revise its development policies on the region by finding a sustainable solution to help revive the livelihood of local communities and ensuring that all people could get benefits from the once mighty Indus.

The speakers said the Indus delta once used to be a hub of trade and commerce activities due to its rich biodiversity, countless fish species, livestock and forestry.

They pointed out that the area had gone through a severe degradation because of diversion of fresh water from the delta to the upstream lands for agricultural purposes, drastically reducing the water flow, which was 170maf in 1930s, to less than 10 maf now, thereby depriving the communities of a vital source of their livelihood.

They said the resultant degradation was now manifesting itself in the form of reduction in mangroves coverage, declining fish stocks, shrinking of agriculture land and vegetation, vertical and horizontal intrusion of sea, degraded water and a significant reduction in grazing areas for livestock.

Moreover, they said, the intensive agricultural activity (through flood irrigation) supported by the water, which was held upstream through dams and barrages, and distributed through canals and distributaries, gave rise to agricultural wastes, which ended up in the delta.

Coupled with this, the sewage and the industrial waste being dumped into the river had played havoc with the region, they said, adding that on the one hand, it had ruined the economy of the communities in the area on the pretext of developing other areas through an increase in agricultural production, and on the other, it had caused degradation of lands upstream in just a period of 40 to 50 years by creating water logging and salinity.

The seminar, titled "Indus Delta-Eco Region International Conference", was jointly organized by the Pakistan Fisher folk Forum and the Architecture and Development (AD), a French NGO, with the European Union's support.

PFF chairman Mohammad Ali Shah, Luvid Jonard of the A&D, Feroz Mehdi of the Alternatives, Canada, Sikandar Brohi (PFF) and Tahir Qureshi of the ICUN also spoke at the inaugural session of the seminar, besides others.

Highlighting the importance of the conference, Mr Shah said the conference was the part of "Sustainable Programme for Rehabilitation of the Indus Delta-Eco Region", which was being implemented by the PFF and its partners, A&D (France), Amorces (France) and ISTAS (Spain) and NRPP, Badin.

According to Mr Shah, the fishermen communities were among the most deprived population of the country. He said massive exploitation of sea resources had deprived the fishermen of their only source of livelihood.

Besides that, he said, the fishing communities had also been facing host of socio-economic problems, especially lack of basic amenities like education, health and safe drinking water.

Moreover, living near the coast and other water recourses, the fishing communities had always remained vulnerable to natural disasters, including cyclones, floods and droughts, he added.

Along with all this, he said the fishing communities of Sindh had been suffering from another disaster. That is the shortage in downstream water discharge, which was damaging Indus Delta's ecological balance.

He said with the introduction of modern irrigation system on the Indus River, specially commissioning of barrages and dams, the water flow to the delta started reducing drastically. He further stated that the reduction in the fresh water over the last 60 years had caused an irreparable loss to the ecology and biodiversity in the delta.

At the outset of his speech, Mr Ludovic Jonard of the A&D explained the objectives of his organization, saying that it was not an environmental organization, but it was interested in carrying out a project on water management issues in the Indus Delta region, and this was its first project in Pakistan.

He said the A&D wanted to share its experiences with our partners in this regard, and it firmly believed that without a strong partnership, even the most brilliant proposals could be turned into failure.

Mr Jonard suggested that the conference should devote itself to all fisher folk of the world struggling for their right to a decent livelihood, like other human beings.

Mr Feroz Mehdi of the Alternatives recalled his previous visit to the Indus region, saying that when he visited Keti Bundar, he had felt that he was in a ghost town. Mr Mehdi said he was informed by the fishermen that it once was a thriving port city with crops and fruits being produced in abundance.

He hoped that during the two-day conference, the experts would not only highlight the current situation, but would also suggest solutions for the problems being faced by the region and its people.

Earlier, the speakers also highlighted various problems being faced by the fishermen, which included over fishing, use of banned nets, deep-sea fishing and involvement of government agencies in granting fishing licences, besides industrial pollution.