KARACHI, Oct 17: The Pakistan Fisheries Association has demanded that the potable water scarcity problem in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan be solved on emergency basis and the dredging of the Pasni Fish Harbour be taken up immediately to save the harbour from complete ruin.

These demands were made at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club on Friday. It was addressed by Mirza Tehmasib Bag, chairman of the PFA, and Syed Sherjan Baloch, the PFA’s secretary general.

They said the Pasni Fish Harbour, developed at a huge cost of Rs560 million, was on the verge of destruction and because of non-dredging millions of tons of sand had accumulated at the harbour. They said if the situation persisted millions of rupees invested in the harbour would go waste.

They said that for want of a policy in the last 56 years the country had been deprived of millions of dollars foreign exchange.

Mr Baig pointed out that shrimp farming was an extremely profitable business throughout the world and most of its exporter countries were taking steps to improve its farming every year, but unfortunately so far no attention had been paid in Pakistan to develop it and because of the irresponsible attitude of government functionaries, the industry was in a very bad shape .

“In the absence of a national fishing policy fishermen are living along coastal areas in miserable conditions and continue to be ignored in all development schemes,” he said. He stressed the need to learn from the experiments of Iran and Bangladesh as “Iran has earned over $500 million from shrimp farming— three times more than our total earnings from the fisheries”. He called for a comprehensive policy for shrimp farming.

He said in Sindh fishing through banned nets was a common practice which was threatening marine life in Sindh and Balochistan. He demanded an immediate end to fishing by prohibited nets through strict implementation of law.

He also urged that administrators of the Balochistan Coastal Development Authority, the Balochistan Fish Harbour and the Pasni Fisheries Harbour Authority be appointed without further delay.

He said although Gwadar had been given the status of a port city, no planning had been made for water supply which had increased the sense of deprivation among the local population.

Likewise, he said, in Pasni the water problem had become acute despite availability of water in sufficient quantity at a distance of 25kms at Shadi Kordam as no pipeline had been laid to supply water to the city.