Fish harbours in Balochistan

The construction of fish jetties and harbours, and breakwaters, without taking the traditional ecological knowledge into account, has had devastating impacts on coastal towns in Balochistan.
Damb in Lasbella district and Jiwani and Shadi Kor in Gwadar district face “very severe” erosion while Pasni and Ras Shaheed in the same district face “severe” erosion.
In all these areas, the construction of jetties and breakwater walls has resulted in massive erosion of the surrounding land. According to the national assessment, an area of 0.32 kilometres square has been eaten up by the sea in Damb during the past six years because of the tidal currents that developed after the construction of a fish harbour.
In Jiwani, the breakwater wall built to provide a safe berthing area for naval ships has damaged sediment movement and refraction currents, causing erosion of land on either side the town.
The Pasni fish harbour, which was built in 1988 with two breakwater walls, causes high energy waves, resulting in the erosion of 1.2 kilometre square area on its eastern side. The assessment attributes the storm which destroyed Pasni town in the late 90s to this construction.
According to the report, Gawadar is facing “medium” erosion of land on its eastern side due to the ongoing construction work in the deep water port which is already causing erosion of land to the east of the fish harbour.