KARACHI, Sept 16: Fishermen living on the Salehabad island located off Karachi coast have complained that they have to pay as much as Rs40 for a bucket of drinking water being supplied through private parties.

They narrated their grievances to a delegation of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, whose chairman, Mohammad Ali Shah, visited the island with a delegation of his organisation.

According to the fishermen, the island having a population of more than 5,000 souls is confronted with numerous civic and other problems but the elected representatives and government officials are paying no attention to their plight. The most pressing problem is non-availability of drinking water on the island. Though arrangements had been made to supply water but it was too expensive and beyond their affordability, the fishermen said. “Due to the indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned, this issue could not be resolved as yet,” they lamented.

The local residents told the delegation that the island had a mangroves forest grown around it but the agencies executing different projects destroyed it. They claimed the certain lands on the island had been grabbed by security agencies which had drastically restricted free movement of the local people.

“One of the security agencies has been occupying even a school as a result of which children have been deprived of their education,” the fishermen said, adding that the school had now been reserved for the children of the security agencies’ personnel.

The fishermen told the PFF delegation that the local population also lacked the essential facilities like electricity and health. “We have to rush to some health care centre in the city centre, far away from here, in case of an emergency,” they said.

Mr Shah assured the fishermen that his organisation would take up the issue with the authorities concerned and get the issues resolved.

He noted that the elected representatives of the area had been keeping the local population on false promises as the poor fishermen were still without basic amenities.