Members of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) claimed that the waste had made living conditions unbearable. PHOTO: FILE
Scores of residents of the coastal belt staged a protest demonstration outside Badin Press Club on Wednesday against the sugar mills for dumping their waste directly into various drains of the district.
Participants of the rally, organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), claimed that the waste had made living conditions unbearable as the untreated effluents of over 10 sugar mills were being flowed directly into the drains.
The industrial waste of sugar mills situated in Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Mirpurkhas and Thatta is dumped into nullahs, including the Haji Ameer Shah and Karo Ghunghro drains of Badin district. “Skin diseases are common in birds, fish and human beings inhabiting the coastal belt due to toxic waste,” said PFF’s Badin chapter president, Muhammad Mithan Mallah.
He alleged that sugar factories were violating the Industrial Act as they had established treatment plants for the waste despite repeated protests. The participants said that the waste had also affected the resources of fisher communities in the coastal belt, saying that the numbers of fish and shrimps were declining because of it.
“Effluents of the sugar mills from the whole region are being dumped into the drains without treatment,” remarked a protester, Syed Makkal Shah. He said that communities dependent on fishing would be in a miserable condition if action against factories was delayed.
The participants, including women, appealed to top officials to take immediate action against the sugar mills.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2013.
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