KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb 4 (Asia Water Wire) -- To the developers of a resort project to rise on Bhundar island, Rehmat Bibi’s dilapidated hut must be quite an eyesore. Yet the spirited woman has so far stood her ground and refused to give in to the pressure – at first gentle cajoling, then sterner words – by the uniformed men to leave.

   “I will not move an inch as I was here long before (the nearby) Port Qasim was here; even before this country came into existence,” says a defiant Bibi. “This is my home.”

   Bibi says she has lived there since she was 10. “I will die here,” says the fragile old woman, taking a long puff at the hookah (hubble bubble) and ending her bold diatribe with a bout of cough.

   Signs of development on the twin islands of Bhundar and Dingi (also known as Buddo), located in the Arabian Sea at the western end of the Sindh coast, have been clearly visible until recently, and residents are watching to see when, and whether, work on the project will continue.

   The few remaining huts in Bhundar have already been dismantled. On Dingi island, Zubaida Birwani, an activist from the Mahigeer Tehreek (Fisherfolk Movement) says that a clearing has been made for a helipad.

   Pakistan’s government is converting the 4,856-hectare twin islands into resorts that will be managed by the Port Qasim Authority. In September 2006, Pakistan signed a multi-billion dollar project with a Dubai-based real estate firm to develop the islands. The Diamond Bar City, as the project is called, will be completed in 15 years.

   Things were in fact being prepared for the foundation laying ceremony for the project in early February, with no less than President Gen Pervez Musharraf scheduled to be the chief guest, but all the preparation suddenly came to a standstill.

   “All work has stopped and the workers have left, taking with them their equipment,” says Muhammad Ali Shah, chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) that is leading the campaign against the twin islands project. “There is complete silence on its (government’s) part. They have not announced any further plan of action, but I think our continuous struggle has paid off. We will continue protesting till they back off from the project altogether.”

   Calling the project a rapacious private sector plan in collusion with the government”, Shah explains that neither side saw fit to involve the locals. “The real owners, the fishermen who have historical rights over the islands, have been completely ignored.

   While the islands are not densely populated, Shah fears the project will affect the livelihood of over 500,000 people who do subsistence fishing around the area and use the shores for activities such as washing the nets and sun-drying their catch.

   “The islands, with their mangrove forests, form a rich hatchery for the fish and the shrimps. For over 500 years people from around the Indus Delta have been visiting and fishing on these islands, which otherwise remain uninhabited,” explains 80-year-old Mohammad Umar, a fisherman.

   Shah also finds these islands an environmentalist’s paradise. The islands are home to jackals, snake species like vipers, boas and sea snakes, as well as humpback and bottlenosed dolphins. It is also an ideal bird watcher’s sanctuary, visited by both  native fowl such as herons, waders, terns, egrets, and kites and migratory pelicans, flamingoes, cormorants, and cranes .

   Rather than having a huge resort complex on the twin islands, he says developing ecotourism destinations are a better idea.

   “I think all of Karachi should be worried as the project is an ecological disaster,” Birwani told Asia Water Wire.

  
    The builders aim to turn the two islands, bordered by two creeks – Korangi and Phitti -- into a rich man’s playground. “They say it’s going to be another Dubai with posh commercial and residential complexes, hotels, parks and water features. The two islands will be connected to Karachi, the southern port city, through a 1.5 km long bridge.

   Emaar Properties PJSC, a realty giant based in Dubai, is tasked to build the twin resorts at a cost of 43.135 billion U.S. dollars .

   In a letter sent to the company director in January, Birwani urged the company to put a halt to the project. “This project has generated a wave of deep concern and resentment among civil society organisations, mainstream political parties and marginalised fishermen of the country,” Birwani was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Times’.

   “From the time we started our protest, we have continuously written to Emaar and even sent our campaign activities to them. Not once has anyone from their side responded,” says Shah.

   At the same time, Birwami says much of the opposition by political parties is just lip service they pay to the public good. “The time for speeches is over. If they’re really concerned, they have to jump right in and take action and put pressure on the government to abandon this project completely. Once we lose the mangroves, the area will be vulnerable to tsunamis, cyclones and floods,” adds a frustrated Birwani. “Why don’t we learn from the mistakes of others?”

   In a recent seminar, Najma Sadik of the women’s resource center Shirkat Gah warned, “Mangroves are shock absorbers and once removed to make way for the development, the consequences will be dire.”

   Dr Ejaz Ahmed, deputy director general of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) – Pakistan, concedes that the environmental loss would be irreparable given the high level of pollution that is expected to be caused by the dumping of construction debris into the sea.
  

 

To pacify the locals, the government has promised  to create jobs for them. But people like Umar, 60, and his son Abdullah, who come from interior Sindh and live on these islands for months on end, refuse to buy this. Umar says they don’t want to turn into daily wage earners.   
 
   Qasim Nathani, 75, who has fished around Bhundar for over three decades, is quite worried about losing fishing grounds. “Once the government begins construction, they will not let us fish around the area. To me this spells death of my occupation.”

   Nathani has every reason to be worried. He has twice been displaced from the waters he fished in -- once from Gizri creek, now a reclaimed land called the Defence Housing Authority, a posh residential community owned by the Armed Forces,; and then from Korangi Creek, now how home to a Pakistan Air Force base. Nathani does not believe the government’s promises  that the fishermen can carry on with their métier. 

   Like Nathani, 78-year-old Majid Bhotani, is also sceptical. “The rich and the poor cannot live side by side. We will be elbowed out. This has happened when the Marina Club (private club for the affluent) along the Korangi Creek was built. We’d be forced to leave the moment they started.” (END/IPSAP/AWW/ZE/LC/JS/030207)