THATTA: Explaining her resolution recently adopted by the Senate, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sassui Palijo has strongly advocated immediate construction of a coastal highway that could also serve as a solid embankment to protect Thatta, Badin and Sujawal districts from further sea intrusion.

`Sea intrusion over the past couple of decades has already eaten up more than 1.4 million acres of fertile lands of Sindh`s coastal districts. This is a warning that Thatta, Badin and Sujawal districts as well as a part of the Malir [Karachi] district will vanish by 2050 if protective measures are not planned today and undertaken as early as possible, she told a group of local journalists here on Monday.

Senator Palijo said that while presenting the resolution in the upper house of the parliament, she recommended construction of a 250-kilometre-long highway along the coastline. The highway could also serve as a solid embankment to protect the lands and population of the vulnerable districts from further sea intrusion, she said.

`Sea intrusion is not only an imminent threat to the very survival of the coastal districts, but it has also been taking a heavy toll on the livelihood of their population,` she observed.

According to her, thousands of families have lost their livelihoods -mainly related to fisheries, farming and cattle rearing -to sea intrusion that has swept away more than 1.4 million acres of land once providing them potential sources of income. A good number of labourers had also been earning money over the long period of time, she recalled.

`A pathetic situation prevails now in the coastal villages where unemployment is on the rise and hundreds of families facing starvation have to migrate to other areas in search of livelihoods or jobs,` she noted.

Senator Palijo said that unfortunately the federal government did not believe in long-term planning as it did not pay any attention to the survival of the huge population of this vast territory in its Vision 2025 programme.