50,000 fishermen at risk of losing livelihood

Mai Raheema, 80, has lived on Bhundal Island in the Indus River delta since she was a little girl. She and her husband are among the few long-term residents of the island, but with up to 50,000 other fishermen depend on the delta area for their livelihoods. However, a new tourism development threatens to force them out of their homes and out of work.

According to the World Conservation Union, the world’s largest conservation network, at least 45,000 fishermen fish around the tiny islands of Bhundal and Dingi, near Pakistan’s port city of Karachi. Depending on fishing conditions and tides, fishermen spend differing periods of time actually living on the 7,000 acres of island land.

"Whether I live there permanently, or for months or for weeks or days, these islands are part of our heritage, and are part of our livelihood. The channels in which the islands lie are a key route to the [Arabian] sea and the mangroves are key breeding grounds for fish and prawns," Muneer Mohana, a local fisherman in his 50s, said.

Fishermen such as Mohana and Raheema are furious over a recent deal between Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Ports and Shipping and United Arab Emirates-based construction company Emaar Properties to develop a luxury resort city on the islands. In a joint venture with Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Emaar is expected to develop the proposed Diamond Bar Island City at a cost of US $45 billion over the next 13 to 16 years.

The luxury development, which involves the reclamation of 5,000 acres of mangrove swamp between the islands, would drastically affect the local fishing community, specialists say.

"The blocking off of the islands and the water around them would affect at least 500,000 people [fishermen and their dependents] and make it still harder than before for these impoverished people to survive," said Muhammad Ali Shah, chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolks Forum (PFF), which represents the fishing communities in the southern Sindh province.

Challenging the government

The development project is the latest in a series of issues that have pitched the fishing communities of Sindh against the government. The government has argued that the development is necessary and earns revenue.

The outcome of the tussle may determine the fate of other projects planned along the coastal waters that lap Pakistan's southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

"[Pakistan’s] President Musharraf has implied development should go ahead at all costs. This simply does not make sense. Some costs are far too high to bear,” said Ronald d'Souza, chairman of the Karachi-based Shehri organisation, which campaigns for a better environment for citizens and has opposes indiscriminate development along beaches.

The development of the islands would contribute to further pollution of the sea around Karachi, specialists say. Already, the dumping of waste in water there has resulted in a decline in fish stocks and high levels of toxins, including mercury, have been found in fish and shrimps caught in the area.

In addition, the development plan for the islands envisages reclaiming large tracts of mangrove swamp, which environmentalists argue would cause extensive damage to the unique ecological system of the Indus delta, the fifth largest delta in the world.

Fishermen fear that the development work would jeopardize their livelihood, displace them from key fishing areas and push the community further into poverty.

Rani Farzad’s father and husband are both fishermen. Rani and her children help sort, clean and dry fish – sometimes on the Bhundal and Dingi islands. She fears that their fishing days are numbered. "No one thinks of us, because we are poor and helpless."

kh/ds/at/ed