KARACHI: The problem of pollution of sea water along the coast of Karachi will assume alarming proportions during the next 15 to 20 years and would affect the fisheries industry very adversely, an unofficial study shows. Much pollution has already taken place during the past 20 years since Karachi began industrialising after Independence. The pollution already done has also reduced fish breeding near the coast and the fishermen who were previously having a good catch very close to the coast have now to cruise very far and deep. Much of the pollution, the study shows, has been caused by the large quantities of chemicals and acids drained into the sea by the host of industrial complexes located in the three industrial zones of the metropolis.

[Meanwhile, according to this paper’s editorial,] More funds … and more of a clear purpose in the creation of a climate favourable to the cultivation of science … are the twin requirements for the advancement of both fundamental and applied research. Professor Abdus Salam, Scientific Adviser to the President, who recently made an impassioned plea for much larger Government spending on the research councils and universities, also asserted that the increased expenditure will be “fully justified in the way of economic returns”. There is an optimum size for a research undertaking, he observed, and in order to achieve tangible results it is absolutely essential to put in financial investments of a certain magnitude.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2021