BAHRIA UNIVERSITY KARACHI CAMPUS

Name: Muhammad Umer Khan

Enrollment No: 02-101191-026
Class: 7
Section: A
Subject Name: Hydrographic Data & Services Management/
Hydrography & Navigation
Course Code: MTM 402
Teacher Name: Sir SHAUKAT HAYAT KHAN
BS (Maritime Business and Management)
Department: School of Maritime Studies
Assignment: 2
Last Date of Submission: 16 January 2022
Submit Via: LMS
Assignment No. 2
Write the causes of siltation in Pasni Fish Harbour
Answer:
Introduction:
Pasni Fish Harbour is located in Pasni, Balochistan, Pakistan, operated by the Government of
Balochistan. It was created in 1989 for the local fisherman for their welfare and fish catching or landing at
jetty.
Pasni, like the other port towns in Gwadar district, used to be a tiny town inhabited by fishermen
historically. While fishermen for generations problems of the residents have been compounded in the new
technological era.
Pasni Fisheries Harbour

Name of associated firm :

PRC, Engineering Inc., U.K
Project Location within Country: Province of Balochistan
Start Date: January 1987
Completion Date: June 1989

Project Description
o Construction of the fishing harbour for 500 vessels, up to 1,200 tons gross weight, draft 2 meters
 o Construction of breakwater, total length 1,225 meters

o Construction of additional groynes for shore protection

o Capital dredging in the basin area of 5 million cubic meters and reclamation of berthing area

o Construction of cargo quay with 4 meter draft

o Construction of power house, fish market hall, workshop and port authority building

o Construction of fuel storage tanks

o Construction of hard standing area and access roads

Services
The services included subsoil investigation, design, tender documentation and construction supervision as
follows:
o Subsoil Investigation

o Design of all onshore work, including buildings, roads

o Design of water supply system, development of well rising main storage tank, and overhead tanks

o Design of utilities and services for buildings and areas

o Preparation of tender documents, tender evaluation recommendations etc.

o Capital Dredging and Land Reclamation to Constructed harbour quay wall & reclamation thereof

o Construction supervision of entire work, including dredging of basin

The Causes of Siltation in Pasni Fish Harbour

Causes of siltation in pasni fish harbor
The harbour which was constructed in 1989 is located east of the Pasni city. As soon as it get completed
the construction company had admitted, owing to monsoon seasons and sand erosions or silting after
period of almost five years it will require dredging and operational up keeping.
The jetty was sunked due to the non dreding of mud and sand reclaimation.
A research paper published in the journal of Researchgate in November 2012 by five authors entitled,
“the issue of coastal erosion and accretion along Makran coast of Pakistan”, made an effort to point out,
any man made structural development along the Makran coast has resulted in a swift response both in
terms of accretion and erosion. Farther they stated that, to speak technically, this type of a bay is created
in an area where the net transport of sediment is almost equal to the volume of sediments going out of the
bay. One of the supporting sentence in the matter of dysfunctionality of the Pasni harbour is that, in such
environment where the erosion and accretion are equal, a small disturbance in the naturally stable
condition might drastically change the physiography and hydrodynamics 0f the area. This is what
happened at Pasni.
Pasni is a mini medium sized area with a population of approximately 6, 00000 People. The source of
majority of the people’s livelihood is fishing. The only fish harbour was comprised of an approach
passage, harbour basin and the docking area. In a rough estimation somehow twenty to twenty four
thousand people of Pasni are fishermen and mariners. Regrettably, these days it has been a complete
decade the jetty is impracticable for fishing purpose.
The secretary of the fisheries and managing director of Pasni Fish Harbour (PFH) while briefing over the
evolutionary performance of PFH to Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan at the beginning of
2019, said despite of operational work at the harbour an amount of Rs1.5 billion was paid as
remunerations to the employees and staff.
To recuperate and uphold the harbour for the purpose of facilitation and comfortability of fishermen
began in 2009 during the reign of then Chief Minister, Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani who’s cordially
invitation brought a Japanese government assistance for the project. Asa result in 2010, the grant of
Rs800 million was approved for the rehabilitation work of the harbour.
The drowned Pasni Harbour was built during the tenure of General Ziaul Haq and the funds for the
project were provided by the Asian Development Bank. Late renowned journalist Siddiq Baloch, while
expressing his view in the daily Balochistan Express impugned the authorities of appointing a Chairman
and Managing Director who reside in Quetta and Karachi respectively, however couldn’t go to Pasni and
look after the project from Karachi for supervisory operations. He further added, “This was one of the
causes as a remote control there appeared a structural fault and failure of navigational function just
because of erroneous planning and designing”.
The current secretary of fisheries Managing Director PFHA said,” the harbour needs regular dredging
however due to dearth of the funds it has been entirely turned into a ground. It requires at least 3 meter
water for berthing the boats but owing to steady silting it has dried up wholly and this has made the
harbour ineffective”.
“While talking to the author, local fishermen Chakar Wajo and Badayshah lamented that, “We the poor
fishermen of the area face sever hardships as the harbour is inoperative due to heavy silting. Neither the
fishing trawlers which bring large catch nor the small vessels with a small catch are able to dock at the
harbour. We the fishermen anchorage the trawlers few kilometers away from the coastline at the water
and hired some people to bring out the weight which is desperately worrying the fishermen and some of
the fishermen berth the yachts at a small inlet known as Juddy Hoor. ”
Ihsan Baloch, a fishermen and only breadwinner of his family said, “It is certainly something to
misbehave and an act of antagonistic attitude towards us. The fishermen take days to months and when
they return only Almighty Allah knows how seriously exhausted they are. If there was an operational
harbour at Pasni it would be at ease for them but despite of the cries and requests still we lack the
opportunity and availability of a harbour with traditional facilities”.
Balochistan Chief Minister has proposed the project of reconstruction of the silting harbour in a meeting
of PFHA at some other place in the same area to protect the rights of fishermen on 18th February 2019.
The meeting also reviewed to use the grant from Japan which has been provided for rehabilitation of the
harbour earlier.
No doubt, operational jetties not only provide jobs to the local people but also strengthen the economies.
Mr Kamal said but unfortunately the concerned institutions and departments in Balochistan are not
working effectively however the concerned authorities will be held on account.
Beside relocation of the Pasni fish Harbour, another eight new jetties in coastal areas of Makran to be
constructed has been reviewed by the provincial Govt. but most of the local fishermen annoyingly
refusing any such beneficial project development for their comfortability.
In August 2018, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing has assured that China will help for
remodeling and dredging of the Pasni harbour site to address the issues of the fishermen. Aslam
Bahootani, MNA Lasbela-Gwadar was also present.
A master student from Pasni, Norouz Baloch requested the provincial government to take an action
hastily as dysfunctionality of the Harbour has paralyzed the local fishing industry.