ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Planning and Development adopted on Thursday a report on how Pakistan had lost significant land mass along the coast due to sea intrusion and was going to rapidly lose more in the future.

The report has been prepared by a three-member sub-committee assigned by the main committee to visit the coastal area of Sindh and Balochistan to take stock of the situation and frame recommendations on controlling erosion caused by sea intrusion.

Assisted by the Pakistan Navy, National Institute of Oceanography (NIC) and Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), members of the sub-committee, led by its convener Dr Karim Khawaja, recently flew over 770km coastline from Sir Creek in Sindh to Jiwani in Balochistan.

The report describes the 254km belt form Sir Creek to Karachi as most vulnerable to sea intrusion.

“The physical features of the land are such that this stretch lies lower than the higher ground extending into Balochistan. This area has been affected the most,” Senator Khawaja said.

The report points out that more than 2.2 million hectares of land has been swallowed by the sea over the last 30 years or so.

A meeting of the main committee learnt that it was the first time that scientific methods and satellite images had been used to identify the area lost to sea.

It was told that climate change and particularly human interference with nature’s course were main reasons for the coastal erosion.

Today less than 126 million tonnes of silt was deposited on the coast mainly by Indus River whereas 400m tonnes of sediment used to be amassed there in the past, extending land by 30 metres over the years.

Loss of mangrove forests from 260, 000 hectares in the 1970s to 160, 000 hectares by the 1990s and further to barely 80,000 hectares in 2001 is a major cause of soil erosion along the coastal belt.

Realising the gravity of the situation, PML-N Senator Saud Majeed told the committee that he would raise the issue of sea intrusion at the Prime Minister’s Special Committee on Planning and Development, of which he was a member.

In its recommendations, the sub-committee suggests that a 250km highway be constructed along the coast from Sir Creek to Karachi to serve as a wall against sea intrusion.

The report notes a consensus among the sub-committee’s members on the need to include sea intrusion in the “Vision-2025,” an initiative of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms. It recommends that existing agreements on preservation of the coastal areas such as 1991’s water accord should be implemented in letter and spirit to stop soil erosion in Sindh from Sir Creek to Karachi.

It asks departments concerned such as Suparco, the NIO and navy to carry out frequent observations and scientific studies to identify lost areas and suggest mitigation measures to prevent soil erosion in the future.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016