A group of fishermen have announced initiating a campaign against the construction of the Bhasha Dam, which will begin on International Day of Actions for Rivers on March 14.
At a meeting of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) held on Sunday evening, activists from Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were asked to mobilise the people of their communities, especially fishermen, herdsmen and farmers.
If the river is allowed to flow without disruption from dams, the people will live a happy life. Natural disasters have already wrecked havoc on these people, especially those living in the tail-end areas, Shah said.
We are going to show our strength to express solidarity with the world community, and to oppose the building of more dams to keep the River Indus flowing. We want to see the river flowing throughout the year, it is necessary for saving what’s left of our lands, crops, pastures and villages, which are under threat of sea intrusion.
Focusing on Sindh, participants at the meeting said that the government’s departments do not have updated information about the water bodies in their jurisdiction. A large number of water bodies have either deteriorated or have been abandoned. As a result, result hundreds of families have been forced to shift to other waters; this process of migration is still on-going.
Activists from various parts of the country pointed out that this displacement was not only happening in coastal areas, those living near sources of inland water were also not safe from the deterioration of their local water source.
Saeed Baloch and Majeed Motani from Karachi, Gulab Shah from Thatta, Ishaq Meerani from Kashmore, Hussain Bakhsh Meerani from Kambar-Shahdadkot, Mithan Mallah from Badin, Khuda Bakhsh Baloch and Aslam Baloch from Gwadar, Balochistan, Ghulam Rasool and Rahimdad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and others representing different areas participated in the meeting.
The PFF has organised a variety of different activities for March 14. These include staging theatre shows, cultural programmes and rallies to sensitise the community to the value of their local natural resources. The activists will also stage protest rallies against destructive development projects on the River Indus. The participants urged for unity among different the communities of fishermen, farmers and herdsmen.
They demanded that control of local water sources be given to farmers, fishermen and herdsmen, so as to ensure sustainable usage of the natural resource.
The meeting also spoke out against the implementation of a contract system on fresh water bodies, saying that it undermined the livelihoods of the poor fishermen who lived near these waters.
Saeed Baloch said the government should take the issue of fishermen seriously and ensure protection of their rights at different waters, specially in Sindh and parts of Punjab and KPK, where the local people were being made to face injustices at the hands of certain influential people.
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