The Karachi coastline's growing pollution level, which is tied
to the increasing volume of trade via the shipping industry
through the Karachi Port, is severely contaminating the mangrove
forests and marine life in the area. Karachi Port handles the
majority of the country's seaborne trade while the surrounding city
of Karachi accounts for half of the government's revenues and
contributes 20 percent of Pakistan's GDP. Karachi, which is
Pakistan's financial center and has the highest concentration of
literate people in the country, also serves as the location for a
large portion of the country's primary export industries which
produce large amounts of industrial waste.(1) Untreated waste and
sewage from factories are drained into the sea as well as oil
spills from ships and fishing trawlers transiting the port.(2)
The port authorities are ill-equipped to deal with the
environmental degradation being caused by the shipping industry.
Moreover, because many landlocked Central Asian countries are
beginning to view Pakistan as a conduit to ship out their exports,
the port activity is likely to increase; and so will the
pollution. The national government is now faced with the complex
problem of encouraging the upswing in trade to foster economic
growth while at the same time attempting to contain the
environmental damage that ensues with these new opportunities.