THATTA: Members of a subcommittee of the senate standing committee on planning, development and reforms have called for speedy remedial measures to save Sindh coastline from sea intrusion and said “the federal government’s mysterious silence on the issue may ultimately take the situation to a point of no-return”.

The senate body’s members, Dr Karim Khwaja, Sirajul Haq, head of Jamaat-i-Islami, and Mohsin Leghari demanded inclusion of the issue in Vision 2025 after taking an aerial view of the coastline and attending a briefing by officials of the Institute of Oceanography and Suparco at Pakistan Naval Camp at Shahbunder here the other day.

The senators were informed that gradual sea intrusion had brought more than 1.2 million acres of coastal land under brackish water and made 16 out of 17 creeks in Thatta district nonfunctional within the last two decades.

Senator Haq said that he believed now after the visit that parts of Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts would be inundated by oceanic water within 30-40 years if the federal government failed to take adequate steps to save the coastline.

Senator Khwaja demanded that at least 10 million acre feet of freshwater should be released downstream Kotri in the Indus to resist sea intrusion.

They would send a report to the authorities concerned and urge the Sindh government to draw attention of the federal government towards the issue.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2016