PAKISTAN: ADB to help improve livelihoods in Sindh coastal communities

ISLAMABAD, 30 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is preparing to improve the livelihoods of marine fishing and farming communities in three southern districts of Pakistan's Sindh province after declining river flows and seawater intrusion badly damaged the biodiversity of the Indus Delta.

"The goal of the 'Sindh Coastal and Inland Community Project' (SCICP) is first to reduce extensive poverty in coastal communities by enhancing income-earning opportunities through a participatory and community-based approach," Haroon Shah, programme analyst at the ADB's country mission, told IRIN in the capital Islamabad. "At the same time, it (SCICP) aims to reverse the degradation of coastal and inland marine resources."

Under the programme, the Manila-based bank will help Islamabad prepare a detailed framework of the investment project for better management of coastal resources over a period of seven months beginning in May through a technical assistance grant of US $650,000 towards the total cost of about $814,000.

The Indus Delta ecosystem, covering an area of 600,000 hectares and characterised by 17 major creeks and innumerable minor creeks, mud flats and fringing mangroves, is one of 200 recognised eco-regions in the world today.

"Over the last 50 years mangrove cover has decreased from 260,000 hectares to just 75,000 hectares along the coastline of Sindh," Muhammad Ali Shah, chairman of Pakistan's Fisher Folk Forum (FFF), a local fishermen's rights body, told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi.

A reduction in mangrove cover due to severe water shortage has led to a concomitant decline in the breeding grounds of many commercially important species of fish and crustaceans.

"Fish stocks have declined significantly, while commercially important marine species are fast disappearing - entire livelihoods have been lost for an already poor coastal population," Shah said.

More than 70 percent of Pakistan's total marine resource production is derived from the highly productive coastal zone, located along Sindh's 350 km long coastline.

Although the overall contribution of the fisheries to GDP is less than 1 percent at present, the country's seafood exports could bring in $2 billion annually if potential was fully realised, Dr Sardar Riaz Khan, a prominent economic affairs expert, wrote in the English-language daily 'Dawn', on Monday.

The ADB's planned project would cover some 2.3 million people of the coastal and delta areas of Badin, Thatta and Karachi. A key intervention identified in the bank's technical assistance (TA) project report includes community-based programmes to restore and rehabilitate salt water-tolerant mangroves, most notably along the Thatta coastline.

"Such programmes would seek to demonstrate the current level of dependence on mangrove key communities and target specific user groups such as mangrove fodder, fuel wood collectors and developers," said an ADB TA project report.

In addition to water shortages and the degradation of both ground and surface water resources, the issue of potable water resources remains problematic.

"Immediate interventions are needed for the supply of safe drinking water to avert any major health crises in the coming summer season," the FFA's Shah said.

At the same time, land use practices, such as the building of water reservoirs, has interfered with water flow and hydrological processes, the ADB project report said.

"Conflicts between the farming and fishing communities in the area over the availability and use of freshwater from the Indus River has further exacerbated the situation," the report claimed.

The ADB's planned project will include policy and institutional strengthening for integrated coastal management, as well as sustainable livelihood assistance for coastal communities and small-scale infrastructure development such as fish landing facilities and social infrastructure.

[ENDS]