Salvaging Bhit island: fishermen urge government to step up efforts

As fears of the overwhelmingly inhabited Bhit Islands slipping into the harbour's navigational channel, local fishermen urged the government to step up efforts for salvaging their island. Fishermen of the old Bhit island of Keamari asked the government to undertake scores of development projects for the "neglected and backward" community of the country.
"The Bhit island is far more backward with no healthcare, education, security and other basic facilities," says a letter, which the Island's Fishermen Association sent to President Asif Ali Zardari.
It says the Bhit Island is the most backward amongst the all islets of the country which the government left undeveloped for unknown reasons, as no hospital, school building, and other basic infrastructure have been constructed since long, long time.
The letter enumerates a number of demands, including erection of a seawall to shield Bhit Island from further slipping away into the harbour's navigational channel as the persistent dredging poses a looming danger to the island.
It says the island natural boundaries continue to weaken while the fresh warnings by the global weather forecasters about the tsunamis have also increased fears amongst the dwellers and the need for breakwater development becomes more significant to protect the islands against the hostile seismic and cyclone waves.
It suggests the seawall should be built with a design to provide pathways for the inhabitants to travel and greenbelts either side of the proposed breakwater. It adds that a vacant sea space falls between the Bhit Islands and Salehabad peninsula should be filled up with the sea mud dredged by the port from its mega deep sea project.
The letter says this area after being filled should be used for the developing of modern village for the fishermen community. It maintains that the proposed modern village should have schools, mosques, hospitals, playgrounds, community centres, public sheds, boat building yard, fishing nets weaving yard, with a scheme of residential plots for the poor fishermen.
The government should also focus on founding a 60-bed hospital for the community which should have all key basic modern facilities while the school with the capacity of housing at least 4,000 children should have the higher education set-up, it added.
It demands for a community centre to accommodate at least 5,000 people for the ceremonies, marriages and social activities. It should have an unbroken supply of potable water and electricity. The fishermen community is also eager to have a better electricity transmission system there to replace the decades-old rusty electric wires and polls.
It urges the government to take an audacious turn to rebuild the old broken sewerage system in the Island as issue of untidiness has badly affected the seafarers' community. It says the people at the helm of affairs should also develop trash dumping and collection set-up to make the island neat and clean.
The seafarers' community has grown beyond the island's land size and the issue of rising population there starts creating living problems for the dwellers as one house accommodate more than two families at a time.
The government should sense its responsibility and construct homes for the fishermen, who cannot leave the island because of the fishing profession. Marriages of grown-up youth have been delayed for lack of living space at the islet, therefore the government should provide them with houses at the modern village close to the Bhit Island, the letter requests.
It demands for the construction of roads and alleys of Bhit Island. It says the main road should be developed with further extension from one end to the last one of the island. A jetty over the breakwater and between Salehabad peninsula and Bhit Island should be constructed to connect the islet with the rest of the city with a view to provide road passage to public particularly during emergency, it says.
President Bona Fide Fishermen and Boat Owners Welfare Association, Asif Bhatti told Business Recorder that the fishermen's problems had grown phenomenally since there was no government's attention to develop the island. He urged the government to help the seafarers community overcome their key problems.