Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Pakistan Observer, September 4, 2006
John Thakur Das
FLOWING from the Tibetan Plateau to the Arabian Sea the Indus River is the country’s primary source of fresh water and all along its 3000 km course communities depend on it for their livelihood. In its final stages the Indus River spreads out into a fan-shaped delta of meandering creaks and channels where over two million people rely on the region’s diverse and unique eco-system. Unfortunately, the Delta has reached a crisis because up-stream uses have reduced the river to a trickle thus devastating the ecology arid economy of the e ntire region. The Delta’s fisher-folk and farmers are crying out for a sustainable solution that can allow them to rebuild their livelihoods and ensure that all of Pakistan benefits from the once mighty Indus River.
The area was rich and fertile due to nutritional silt depositions during river inundation periods. Forests, fisheries and agriculture are the important livelihood resources. These forests in the past have been very thick and extensive and have been supplying charcoal, timber, gum, honey and even fish to the Middle East countries as well as some cities in India. Fish found in the delta include the Palla, Hilsa, Indus baril, Indus garua (a catfish), the giant snakehead, golden mahaseer and the Rita catfish. Through the floods in Indus River, the area remained a great source of agriculture crops and orchards. The main Crops were Rice, Sugarcane, and Vegetables. These production was not only fulfilled the needs of local population but earned foreign exchange in the shape of export. Indus delta was extremely rich in biodiversity. Several kinds of birds, mammals and other different water species were found here.
Due to mismanagement and injudicious policies of water authorities of government, the Indus delta has been brought- to the verge of complete destruction. Waters that once delivered silt to the estuarine fishery nurseries, fed lakes and supported agriculture in the region have been greatly diminished, or have ceased completely. As the fresh-water flows in the Delta have decreased, the channels, creeks and lakes have become inundated by seawater and the ground-water aquifers have turned saline. The consequences on the local Sindh communities are devastating. Wells and other potable water sources have become undrinkable, forcing communities to purchase all of their drinking water form outside. Farms have been abandoned as the crops dried up and salt poisoned the soils. The once thriving small-scale coastal fisheries have all but collapsed as the mangrove stands have disappeared. The end result is a landscape barren of opportunity.
The degradation of the Indus Delta has a multidimensional effect on people, language and the region’s overall environment. Reduction of Indus fresh water flows, and fertile silt, ‘has, significantly affected the Indus Delta. Drinking water aquifers are increasing in salinity. Sea intrusion has inundated more than 2.2 million acres of farm land of Thatta and Badin districts. Mangrove forests are steadily depleted, leaving the region vulnerable to greater damage from storm flooding. Forests, agriculture lands and the all echo system is damaged in Indus Delta, Thousands of people who were surviving on water of Indus Dalta have migrated from area.
The proponents of dams always say 1hat annually an average of 35 MAF water goes to sea, which can be conserved through construction of dams on upstream. They claim that this water goes waste annually.
The communities living in the Indus delta believe that their lives and livelihood are much more adversely affected by the so-called development interventions in the shape of cuts and diversions in river Indus than natural disasters. In fact the release of water to downstream Kotri is not a waste but an exigency; a genuine need of the lives and livelihood deltaic people.
Since the last decade or so the people of the delta have been experiencing traumatic and miserable socio-economic condition, that is, their social set up and economic position have been devastated due to the non-fellow of the required amount water downstream Kotri.
The current flow of water in Indus delta due to heavy rains in the country has brought an agreeable difference in the lives of the people and has resulted in prosperity and inexplicable happiness for the biodiversity of the Indus inhabitants.
As part of its mission and advocacy campaign Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum has been highlighting and advocating the issue of systematic and deliberate destruction of the Indus delta, with unflagging determination.
PFF and the people of deltaic region are equally enthusiastic and engrossed in inexplicable cheerfulness due to the advent of water in Indus delta after a longer span of time. The sole purpose of this celebration of the event is not only to welcome the flow of the water but also convey the message to policy-makers and rest of the society that the water is need of the deltaic life not wastage.
Taking into account the agreeable condition of the coastal biodiversity the people of Indus delta are celebrating Jashen-e- Indus Delta at Kharochan (the tale of Indus Delta) Thatta main objective of which is to highlight the impact of reduction in Indus flows downstream Kotri Barrage on livelihood resources, environment and biodiversity of coastal and deltaic region, to sensitize various stakeholders; including policy makers, civil society actors and media on the issue and to bring various stakeholders on one platform to develop consensus about the need and importance of Indus water flow downstream Kotri Barrage which they are enmeshed.
To bring the issue to the notice of all stakeholders, that is, to make them realize that the flow of water Downstream Kotri is not a waste but an exigent need through resurfacing the concocted perception and inhumane stance and statements of so-called rulers over the water distribution and management.
To share and join the moments of mirth and merriment with people of coast through cultural song and dances and stage dramas, they advocate with policy makers for ensuring release of 35 MAF water annually to downstream Kotri.
Flooding brings joy in Indus Delta
By Shahid Husain
The News
KETI BUNDAR: “Twenty years ago, boats loaded with ghee and butter were dispatched to Karachi from Kharo Chaan every day,” said Hanif Kharai, General Secretary, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Thatta district while talking to The News.
“The land was so fertile that 100 per cent fields were cultivable. Today hardly five per cent land in Kharo Chaan is cultivated due to scarcity of freshwater,” he added.
Kharo Chaan is a small tehsil in Thatta district, about 150km south-east of Karachi with a population of about 25,000 people, 90 per cent of them fisher folk. But for the last 20 years, fishery, agriculture and livestock of the tehsil that happens to be the livelihood of the people has been badly affected as elsewhere in the Indus Delta due to non-availability of freshwater.
The Indus Delta, according to a recent study, is fan shaped network of 17 major creeks, occupying 52,800 sq km area. It is about 240km in length along the axis of the river and 220km at its widest, from Karachi to Rann of Kutch.
The River Indus, Pakistan’s major water source for drinking and agriculture once provided such rich pastures for Pakistan, particularly in the vast delta area, that the country could feed itself and had a lucrative trade in exports of rice to the Gulf states. But a series of grandiose schemes on the river, intended to boost production, have so damaged the water flow that the country is now forced to import an increasing volume of grain to survive. But recent monsoon and flooding has brought happiness amongst the impoverished people of the Indus Delta. “The water brought by the floods after a spell of eight long years will cater to the needs of the people for at least 10 years. As a result, our fishery, agriculture and livestock will flourish again,” Kharai said.
Like Kharo Chaan, Keti Bundar is a small town of about 3,000 people in the Indus Delta. It was once a bustling port, but people are now poor, malnourished, and usually barefooted because of abject poverty.
Farmers grew rice in Keti Bundar and Hindu traders would take the surplus to the coastal belt of India and the Persian Gulf states in exchange for goods. Fishing and livestock rearing had a secondary importance, but this was prior to the construction of dams and barrages upstream.
“Drinking water in Keti Bundar comes from Gharo and Ghahro, some 12km from Keti Bundar, through tankers that cost 600 rupees per tanker. But in rainy season, a tanker costs 2,000 rupees and is then sold to local people at 15 rupees for a drum of 25 liters,” said Abdul Karim, a middleman in Keti Bundar.
Karim, besides selling water, deals in fishery. He purchases fish catch in bulk from local fisher folk and then dispatch it to Karachi Fish Harbour where it is auctioned. “Prawn and several fish species are available at Keti Bundar but their rates fluctuate in accordance with the prevailing rates in Karachi,” Karim said.
“A single trip to Karachi costs 3,000 rupees in transportation of 1,000-1200 kg of fish. If the season is good we send two Datsun pickups to Karachi every day; if the catch is small, we transport fish to the city after every two days,” he said.
The large-scale harnessing of the Indus waters began as early as 1890, when the Punjab irrigation system was built and used the four major eastern tributaries of the river for perennial irrigation.
Since then, successive schemes have continually reduced the flow to the delta, increasing the ingress of salt water. In 1932, the Sukkur Barrage was built; in 1958, the Ghulam Mohammad Barrage came into operation; and in the early 1960s, the huge Tarbela Dam was constructed.
All these “developmental measures” adversely affected the lives and livelihoods of farmers, fisher folk and graziers-especially in the lower reaches of the river. Once rich in biodiversity, the Indus Delta has slowly been dying because there is no freshwater flowing into it. On the top of that seawater has intruded up to 54km in the Indus Delta because of almost total absence of freshwater flow downstream Kotri Barrage.
“According to observation by IUCNP (the World Conservation Union-Pakistan) experts, the sea has intruded 54km upstream along the main course of the River Indus. That this incursion is taking place against the gradient of the riverbed indicates that there might be an absence of any retarding factor such as a considerable volume of freshwater in the riverbed. Hence the sea surges have driven seawater into the river channel. This is an uncommon phenomenon for a perennial river. Many are of the view that the fundamental cause may be the progressive upstream diversion of Indus waters and the gradual depletion of freshwater discharges downstream of the Kotri barrage-the last of a series of barrages and dams on the Indus River,” said a report prepared by the IUCN-P in 2003.
The sea intrusion is very rapidly transforming the Indus Delta into a wasteland, forcing local people to migrate elsewhere. The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the town of Keti Bundar has resettled at new places thrice due to sea intrusion. Many people have migrated to the fishing village Ibrahim Haidery in the suburbs of Karachi for good.
There were hopes that the destiny of the impoverished people of Indus Delta will change when it was decided during the government of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to build a power plant at Keti Bundar but for unknown reasons, the plan was shelved when ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took hold of the reins of power.
Otherwise a filthy place due to environmental degradation, the mosque in Keti Bundar appears to be the cleanest place. One wonders if the hadith “Safai nisf eman hai”(cleanliness is half faith) is only meant for the place of worship?
Saeed Baloch
General Secretary PFF
#209 Regal Trade Square Saddar Karachi.
Phone092 21 2750581-5090543-5092862
Cell.092 333 2175 243
web. www.pff.org.pk
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