KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to carry out a satellite and geological survey of lakes and other inland water bodies in the province with an aim to discourage their ‘illegal occupation’ by influential landlords and to improve the lives of fishermen, it emerged on Tuesday.

The livestock and fisheries ministry had envisaged the plan for the survey and mapping of all lakes and sweet water and improve the living conditions of fishing community in coordination with the ministries of irrigation, agriculture, forest and revenue, said an official of the fisheries ministry.

Officials said the Sindh minister for livestock and fisheries, Mohammad Ali Malkani, had informed the relevant officials that the government had decided to fully implement the improved fishing licence system and take concrete steps to retrieve the lakes and sweet water reservoirs from the illegal occupation of influential persons.

The ministry was working on several inland water bodies projects including collection of data of all lakes and sweet water reservoirs across the province to restore their beauty and to generate revenue, they said, adding that relevant field officers had been ordered to keep a vigil at the water bodies being illegally occupied by influential persons.

The field officers had also been directed to report such cases to the authorities concerned, provide relief to local fishermen and effectively implement fishing licence system, the officials said. The ministry had earlier received reports about grievances of the fishing community, illegal occupation of lakes and inland water bodies, water shortage and supply issues. The officials said that the issue that affected the fishing community most was the ineffective implementation of the licensing system.

The pathetic living standard of fishermen in general, and lack of coordination among all stakeholders and non-existent monitoring by the officials were some of the unsolved problems, they added.

The officials said the PPP government took a positive step by getting a bill passed in the provincial assembly regarding the licensing system, but Mohammad Ali Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) said there was neither any contract system nor any licence system in sight. The officials claimed that the provincial minister had assured a PFF delegation at a recent meeting that all the longstanding issues of the PFF would be resolved.After an enduring campaign of the fishermen, the Sindh government had abolished the contract system and notified a licensing system on 1,209 inland bodies in 2007, but its implementation remained ineffective, reports showed.

The PFF said around 3,000 licences were issued to the fishermen yet there were obstacles which didn’t allow them to get any benefit, as the contractors got stay orders from court against many licences.

Published in Dawn December 28th, 2016