21st March 2005
River Dolphins in freshwater battle against extinction, WWF warns

Lahore - On the eve of World Water Day, WWF - Pakistan warns that the Indus River Dolphin's population is in severe decline due to polluted water, fragmented population due to barrages, strandings in the irrigation canals due to water diversion and entanglement in fishing nets and has taken an initiative to save one of the world's most endangered mammal.
According to the global conservation organisation, this is all the more worrying as river dolphins are the key indicators of a river's health and of the availability of clean water for the people living along its banks. WWF - Pakistan lists industrial, agricultural and human pollution, as well as the use of dams/barrages, which restrict the dolphins movement as some of the major threats facing the aquatic mammal. Accidental catches by fishermen and strandings in the irrigation canals are also contributing to the decline of dolphin populations.
"River dolphins are the 'watchdogs' of the water," said Hammad Naqi Khan, Director of WWF - Pakistan's Freshwater and Toxics Programme. "The high levels of toxic pollutants accumulating in their bodies are a stark warning of poor water quality. This is a problem for both dolphins and the people dependent on these rivers. Indus dolphins can be saved from extinction if we act now, and in doing so, we will help improve the water quality and flows to sustain livelihoods of people and maintain ecological health of the River."
Latest evidence shows that the Indus River Dolphin is the second most endangered dolphin species after the Yangtze River in China's largest river. The survey led by WWF-Pakistan and Sindh and Punjab Wildlife Departments revealed that there are fewer than 1,100 Indus River dolphins along the 1,300 km stretch of the Indus river system that are divided into five populations due to the presence of six barrages on the Indus River. River dolphins swim in some of the world's most densely populated river basins, including the Ganges and Indus river basins, where one tenth of the world's people live.
"Clean water is not only vital for the survival of the river dolphin, but also for the quality of life for millions of the Pakistan's poor," added Hammad Naqi Khan. "Conserving biodiversity and alleviating poverty reduction are inextricably linked and cannot be achieved without the enforcement of regulatory framework."
WWF - Pakistan is working with authorities and local people along the Indus River to improve water quality and dolphin habitat through the Indus River Dolphin Conservation Project, local communities are being encouraged not to pollute the river with household detergents and to prevent toxic run-off by using natural fertilisers, such as cow manure. Further, it is working with the local communities and Sindh Wildlife Department to rescue stranded dolphins from the irrigation canals.
With one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) being to halve the number of people without safe water supplies and sanitation by 2015, WWF is calling on governments, local communities, water management agencies and investors to protect areas of high biodiversity to ensure that they provide clean water for people and nature.

For further information:
Amjad Aslam, WWF – Pakistan,
Ferozepur Road, Lahore.
Tel: +92 42 5862360, 5869429,
Fax: 042 5862358,
e-mail: aaslam@wwf.org.pk