HYDERABAD, May 20: The Pakistan Fisher folk Forum has condemned what it called government's anti-people policy regarding water supply and threatened to launch a movement for protecting interests of affected people of the Indus delta.

Speaking at a new conference at the press club here the forum's chairman Mohammad Ali Shah and other leaders, Gulab Shah and Shafi Mohammad, said that the Indus delta was the seventh biggest delta in the world and its population stood at 2,262,058. They said this included the population of Karachi, Thatta and Badin coastal areas.

They said that this area had rich agricultural land but prosperity of people of the region could not be ensured due to wrong policies of the rulers. They said that according to a report, 170 million acre feet of River Indus water used to fall in the sea in 1930. During the last five to six years, no water had been released downstream Kotri, the report further said.

The forum leaders said that now the situation had reversed and, according to official figures, seawater had gobbled up two million acres of agriculture land. They said that people had to migrate from their homes in search of livelihood as even drinking water was not available in the coastal belt.

They observed that the Indus delta was being destroyed due to wrong policies of government organizations. The leaders said that the Indus delta was spread over 600,000 hectares of land and only 10 to 15 years back 260,000 mangroves were recorded right from Karachi to Runn-of-Katchh.

However, they said that presently this area had been reduced to 70,000 hectares due to non-availability of water in the Indus. They pointed out that there were 17 big creeks in the deltaic region and mangroves served as nursery for breeding of fish species.

They said that on the one hand 25,000 cusecs of poisonous water was being released from the Left Bank Out fall Drain into the sea and on the other, fertile land of Sindh was being destroyed due to poisonous water of the Right Bank Out fall Drain.

The forum leaders regretted that they had been calling upon the rulers to take notice of the situation as the non-release of water would lead to destruction of the delta but to no avail.

They deplored government's insistence on construction of new water projects on the Indus. They also opposed granting fishing licenses to factory trawlers, saying due to excessive fishing, various fish species would become extinct.

They said that the situation had been further aggravated due to release of sewage of cities and refuse in the sea. The leaders demanded that 35 MAF water should be released from the River Indus into the sea to save the delta.

They announced that to launch the movement, they would hold a conference of affected people the Indus delta in Hyderabad on May 31. The other programmes include a public rally in Hyderabad on June 10, a people's assembly in Thatta the same month and a people's assembly and a rally in Karachi in July.