KARACHI: The Pakistan Navy has expressed serious concerns over the discharge of raw sewage and industrial waste into the sea and sought cooperation from the Sindh government to remove bottlenecks in the establishment of a treatment plant near Mai Kolachi.

The issues of the marine pollution, installation of a treatment plant, expansion of Karachi Fish Harbour and others were raised by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf during a meeting with caretaker Sindh Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Bagar here at CM House on Tuesday.A spokesperson for the CM House said that the naval chief informed Justice Bagar that the navy, in collaboration with the Karachi Port Trust, wanted to install a 60 million gallons per day (MGD) sewage treatment plant near My Kolachi.

Admiral Ashraf said that the project was part of the Greater Karachi Sewerage Treatment Plan, commonly known as S-HI, but there were some issues with the provincial government over the land of the project that needed to be resolved.

The chief minister told the naval chief that a case involving the Mai Kolachi land was pending disposal in court. However, he assured him that the provincial government would take steps to materalise the treatment plant project.

A source said that around 100-acre of land at the Mai Kolachi area was required for setting up a Wetland Park to treat 60 MGD of swage and industrial wastewater through various outlets. However, the project had been delayed because of litigation over the land.The chief minister informed the naval chief that the provincial government had already started work on the project to treat industrial waste before dumping it into the sea.

He said that funds had also been allocated for the S-HI project and the work needed to be expedited.

`There is also a federal government project for the treatment of industrial waste,` he said, adding that work on the projects also neededtobe spedup.

Expansion of fish harbour The CM House spokesperson said that the naval chief also informed the chief minister that the Karachi Fish Harbour needed further expansion.

He was of the view that the expansion was required to accommodate an increasing number of fishing boats. The chief minister said that the caretaker provincial government would definitely take steps to expand the Karachi Fish Harbour.

Admiral Ashraf said that although the provincial government had given Cadet College Kakkar to the navy it needed to complete the paperwork to start the college.

Justice Baqar directed the officials concerned to complete the paperwork at the earliest.

When the naval chief informed about a refinery being set up in Karachi in cooperation with China, the chief minister assured him that the provincial government would provide all necessary support for the execution of the project.