KARACHI, Oct 12: A seminar-cum-workshop, on Friday, expressed concern over the plight of the fishermen community and urged the government to take early steps to provide them basic amenities.

The seminar on “Problems of Fishing Sector,” organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at Baba Island, was attended by representatives of local bodies, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, and other NGOs. A large number of women activists also participated in the programme.

The speakers said that supply of potable water was the most pressing problem of the area which needed an immediate solution.

They said that the fishermen’s villages were the oldest settlements of Karachi and played an important role in the development of the city, but no effective measures had been taken so far to improve the socio-economic condition of the villages.

The coordinator of the HRCP, Moazzam Ali, said that the NGO’s representatives had been visiting the Baba and Bhit Islands since 1997 highlighting the problems of the fishermen community, but regretted that no effective measures had been taken to solve the problems.

Referring to the supply of potable water, he said that not a single pipeline had been laid so far. Similarly, he said, no measures were taken to improve health care and education facilities.

The Nazim of Baba Bhit Islands, Dr Yousaf, and Saeed Baloch, highlighted the economic problems faced by the fishermen living in the coastal areas of Sindh, whose livelihood, they said, was threatened by the deep-sea trawlers and overfishing.

They said that a ban had been imposed on the fishing of the deep-trawlers, but regretted that it was lifted by the government later on. Terming the decision ill-advised, they urged the government to reconsider it in the national interest.

The official figures of the Sindh Fisheries Department put the number of active fishermen in the coastal areas of the province at 70,000.

The communities claim that a number of fish species, which were in abundance in the past, have now completely become extinct.

The major cause of the decrease in the catch has been the process of overfishing in the coastal waters of Sindh.

The speakers held the foreign trawlers and local sealords responsible for the situation and urged the government to take steps to stop the use of banned nets in the creeks of Sindh coast.

They said the consequences of overfishing were conspicuous as the resources in the coastal areas were decreasing rapidly. The fish catch of the local fishermen has been dwindled to an alarming stage, they added.

The seminarists made a number of recommendations demanding for basic facilities including water, gas, education, sports, health care, employment and transportation.