KARACHI: Its not just stopping the people from going to the beaches, its putting on hold various livelihoods, said Abdul Azizi, a shopkeeper at the Sandspit beach on Thursday.

See, most of the residents of this area are fishermen. And during the monsoon months when they cant go out to sea to catch fish, they do odd jobs like work as food vendors, as hut guards, as lifeguards, etc.

Then when the beaches are full of picnickers and the huts are rented out, the people who come here bring lots of food with them, too, which they also offer to the hut guards. To care for them private companies hire more lifeguards. The bottles and stuff left behind by the picnickers are collected and sold by the children. So many ways of earning get affected if you just shut the beaches altogether, the shopkeeper added.

Blog: The sea is not for the poor

A full cold drink delivery truck passed by just then, not caring to slow down or stop to pick up the empty bottle crates or make fresh deliveries. We dont need to replenish our stocks as often as we used to. I have lost around Rs120,000 of business since Eidul Fitr when picnickers drowned of the Seaview and Clifton beaches. Now when the stuff at my shop doesnt sell, which is often the case, my family and I just eat it ourselves. The other choice would be letting it spoil or go to waste, he said.

Baba Kabir, a resident of Kakapir village, said that the entire problem of closing the beaches started after the mass drownings at Seaview and Clifton last Eid. I dont think that the problem can be solved by closing the beaches. But more lifeguards can be a solution, he said.

All these huts pay taxes. Then more money can be collected at the chungi or entrance points. Take money per head and people will have no objection to that but use that money to hire more lifeguards and give them more facilities, he added.

In fact, there is no dedicated government lifeguards department here. There are the Aman Pal lifeguards, of course, but they are private lifeguards. And the KMC lifeguards are actually fire department employees doing lifeguards duty at the beach. They are not enough anyway and lack facilities. They dont even have ambulances here! he said.

Right now the more determined picnickers who want to go to the beach get there anyway by bribing their way through, so only more lifeguards can help save lives, not closing the beaches.

Shuja Khan, a guard at one of the huts at Hawkesbay, said that the three days of Eidul Azha were terrible for the owner of huts. They just couldnt come here. My sahib and his family wanted to come here and invite some friends over for a barbecue, but the police blocked the entrance points up ahead and they just couldnt reach here, he said.

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Closure of beaches ruins small businesses, livelihoods - Pakistan - DAWN.COM