Saving the Lifeblood of Sindh's Coastal Communities
AGRICULTURE AND fishing are the lifeblood of some 2.3 million people living in the coastal districts of Pakistan's once highly productive Sindh province. But communities that lived in harmony with the environment have been compelled to adapt to some profound changes occurring in the coastal environment.
The area is seeing increased environmental degradation from seawater intrusion, land loss, and declines in mangrove habitat accompanied by serious social and economic problems. An inherently fragile natural resource base, population pressure, and upstream water resources development have contributed to this situation.
As a result, many local inhabitants are now forced simply to subsist, their existence largely determined by the never ending quest for water. With the decline in rangeland, many have forsaken keeping livestock and now eke out an existence as wage laborers in the fishing industry. Others subsist on small holdings.
"Under its present circumstances, the Sindh coastal area needs special assistance for development," says Vidhisha Samarasekara, the ADB project officer tasked with overseeing this project. "Water shortages, debt and questions of governance all act as serious impediments to economic and social uplift."
In recognition of the area's problems, the Government of Pakistan has requested ADB to help design, in a consultative and participatory fashion, a coastal and inland community development project. Covering Sindh's coastal districts of Badin and Thatta, and the coastal areas of
The project will foster income generation and capacity building activities and will fund initial steps to provide for the most basic social needs of the poorest communities, including drinking water, health and sanitation and other forms of social infrastructure. The project will provide practical assistance, developing local skills in trades such as carpentry, motor mechanics, sewing and animal husbandry that would be linked to microcredit programs.
The project will seek to better engage vulnerable communities by reducing dependence on the central Government and widening the range of livelihood options. One proposal is that low- intensity, low-technology mariculture could be developed on ponds, which would be installed on land that is now effectively tidal flats. The ponds would be supplemented by mangrove plantings that would provide livelihoods (from planting and tending) and protection for the communities living around the ponds.
On a wider scale it is proposed to plant a series of mangrove belts nearly 300 kilometers long. The belts would offer a degree of protection to the coastal zone from the periodic onslaught of inundations and cyclonic surges and provide coastal habitat as a step toward improving fish stocks and the well-being of those who fish in the area.
The project will also test models and provide capacity building for the livestock sector with a particular emphasis on dairy productivity by and for poor households.
The project is being prepared with the help of a technical assistance grant from ADB's Japan Special Fund. Following studies, the TA team recommends that the Coastal Development Authority (CDA) be given considerably more authority and resources. This would not only improve the development and implementation of policy but also boost the local environment to attract private investment in sectors such as livestock.
"In essence CDA should facilitate, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate donor and agency inputs within the area," Ms. Samarasekara adds. "It should oversee the production of a flexible and long term vision for the development of the coastal zone - rather than just a short term plan - and ensure that developments adhere to the vision. Ideally the public sector should be seeking to position itself as a policymaking, regulatory and facilitating body".
"It should avoid direct provision and implementation and instead develop its out-sourcing capacity, utilizing district governments, talukas, union councils, citizen community boards, community based organizations, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), the private sector, or some combination of these."
To ensure full understanding and support from the community, the project preparatory team has conducted seven consultative workshops in the three main project areas that were attended by more than 350 representatives from affected communities, civil society, and government. These have been supported by more than 30 field trips to the target communities and extensive discussions with civil society organizations.
As a next stage, a draft Project document has been prepared. This has been circulated within Government and among key stakeholders. Their suggestions will be incorporated in the final recommendations, and the final report will be posted for further public comment on the ADB website (http://www.adb.org/Pakistan/projects.asp). This process, which is expected to take place over the next couple of months, should effectively address some of the immediate and also underlying problems of the more vulnerable communities in the coastal area.About ADB
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