KARACHI: According to Moazzam Khan, a technical adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), pollution has turned the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the surrounding areas into a “dead zone” for marine life.
At least ten important marine species have now gone extinct, which is a sign of the seriousness of pollution in Karachi’s port regions that are close to the ocean.
On the eve of World Oceans Day, the WWF representative told News that human activities, such as the daily discharge of at least 500 million gallons of sewage into the sea, are to blame for the loss of marine life in the port city’s water.
Khan said that approximately 10 kilometers of the region outside the Karachi port are contaminated by the contaminated water that enters the sea from the Lyari and Malir rivers as well as other small and large streams.
The official continued by saying that there is a lot of marine life pollution in the vicinity of Gulbai and Machar Colony. He continued by saying that because of pollution, there is no marine life in the vicinity.
In Karachi, the lamp shell (Lingula anatina) is currently extinct. WWF-P Khan mentioned that oysters were supplied to the viceroy in New Delhi from the port area of Karachi prior to 1947.
