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"India
is named for the Indus River, along whose fecund banks a great urban
civilization flourished more than four thousand years ago."
American
historian, Stanley Wolpert1
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Today,
the Indus river is almost completely devoid of freshwater
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"Fed
by the glaciers of southern Tibet, the Indus flows a thousands miles north and
west through Kashmir before it veers sharply to the south, cutting its gorge
through Nanga Parbat, down the Malakand Pass, which was to become the historic
highroad into India of invading armies from the West."2
The
Indus traverses a journey of 3,000 km before it drains in the Arabian Sea.
It has many fascinating names. "In Tibet it is 'the River issuing from the
mouth of the Lion.' In the gutter between the Karakoram and the Himalyas people
call it 'The Eastern River,' because it comes to them from the sunrise. Breaking
out of the mountains, already rich in tributaries and known to be shortly in
receipt of others, it is 'Abasin', the Father of Rivers. In ancient times it was
the ‘Sindhu’, meaning divider, keeper or defender; this name was gradually
changed to Indus and was given to the whole subcontinent...In its lower reaches,
where it spreads widely over the sands, the river was once known as the 'Ocean'
and, at its delta, as the 'Freshwater Sea."3
But
the majestic river, which is the lifeline of Pakistan's essentially agrarian
economy, is threatened by the myopic policies of successive rulers and the
building of barrages and large dams upstream. The Indus Delta in particular,
which was the most fertile land in the past, is dying a slow death because
it has been deprived of the freshwater that nurtured its rich mangrove
forests, fisheries, paddy rice and orchards.
The
Indus Delta, covering a total area of 60,000 hectares lies in the southern
part of Pakistan bordering the Arabian Sea. India is situated to its east.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Pakistan: "The creek of
the Delta supports a plethora of marine species. Hilsa ilisha, locally known as
Palla fish, swim up from the Arabian Sea to spawn in fresh water...Many species
of marine dolphins such as the Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphin and Bottle-Nose
Dolphins are found in the creeks. Around 100,000 people, mainly fisher folk,
live along the Delta and use the creeks and estuaries as fishing grounds. In
recent years, unsustainable fishing practices have reduced the fish catch.
Shrimps are a major export and Pakistan earns about US$100 million annually as
foreign exchange from their export."
Lack
of Freshwater Having an Adverse Effect
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Map
of the Indus River
Black
dots indicate the locations of dams
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As
early as the 1890s, the Punjab irrigation system was established; in 1932, the
Sukkur Barrage was built reducing freshwater to the delta; in 1958, the Ghulam
Mohammad Barrage became operative and in the early 1960s the world's largest
earth dam, Tarbela, was established on the Indus, depriving the delta of
freshwater.
According
to the figures compiled by the Sindh Irrigation and Power Department, the
average annual and seasonal discharge downstream Kotri Barrage was 150 million
acre feet (MAF) in 1880-92. It became 84.7 MAF in 1940-54, depicting a
decrease of 10 percent. It dropped to 79.9 MAF in 1955-65, indicating a reduction
of 12.9 percent; the discharge was 46 MAF in 1966-76 indicating a reduction of
45.7 percent. In 1977-92 the discharge was 35.2 MAF, indicating a reduction of
58.4 percent. And in the period 1992 onwards the discharge was merely 10 MAF;
today the Indus Delta has been almost completely devoid of freshwater.
"Very
little water is coming down the Kotri Barrage from the River Indus. As a result,
the riverine forests, freshwater fisheries and agriculture, along with coastal
forests are suffering immensely," said Tahir Qureshi, Director of Coastal
Ecosystems in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) based in Pakistan.
Keti
Bundar, a small town in the Indus Delta was once a bustling port where
farmers grew red rice and Hindu traders exported it to India and the Gulf States
and as far away as Indonesia. But today it portrays a pathetic picture. Seawater
has intruded in the delta, destroying large tracts of fertile land,
compelling farmers, fisherfolk and herdsmen to immigrate to greener pastures.
"1.6
million acres of agricultural land has been destroyed by sea
intrusion," according to Mohammad Ali Shah, Chairman of Pakistan’s
Fisherfolk Forum. "The fishery is facing hard times and large numbers of
fisherfolk have been forced to immigrate to Ebrahim Haidery, a fishing village
in the suburbs of Karachi, and elsewhere in the Sindh province."
Indus
Mangroves Face Serious Threat
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Local
communities are striving to save the Indus’ mangroves
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"The
total area of mangrove forests in Sindh's Indus Delta is about 250,000 hectares
and that of Balochistan's Makran coast is now estimated at only 7,500 hectares,
i.e. 3% of the total mangrove forest coverage at the coastal areas of Pakistan.
In view of their relatively small coverage, the mangroves in Balochistan could
easily disappear if no proper action is taken, while those of Sindh are under
severe pressure," according to the Tropical Rainforest Portfolio 1996-2001,
a report compiled by the Directorate General for International
Cooperation(DGIS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands, and
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Zeist, The Netherlands.4
The
report further says: "The mangroves in the Indus Delta are listed as the
world's sixth largest contiguous mangrove area...Until recently, mangroves
were considered as mosquito infected wastelands of no particular value. Today,
conservation values of mangroves and the ecological services they provide have
been well documented. Studies have shown that some 60-80% of the world's
commercial fisheries catch are mangrove dependent species. The Indus Delta is
considered as a coastal zone of very high economic and bio-ecological value. It
is the main fish and shrimp nursery on which Pakistan's fishing industry
depends. Hundreds of thousands of people are directly dependent on the mangrove
ecosystem for their livelihood."
But
mangroves require freshwater, and lack of it in the Indus delta has badly
affected them. According to Dr. Akhter Hai, a senior economist at the Applied
Economics Research Center in the University of Karachi, mangrove forests in
the Indus Delta were spread over 186,000 hectares in 1966 and were reduced to
57,000 hectares by 1998.
A
Less Prosperous Indus Delta
He
says that over-harvesting of fish in the Indus delta, use of seine or fine nets,
wastage of fish catch due to poor storage and market linkages and the use of
juvenile dish catch for poultry feed would lead to a decrease in income at the
macro, regional and household levels as quantity and quality of fish catch
decrease.
Mohammad
Ali Shah, Chairman of Pakistan's Fisherfolk Forum says that use of otherwise
banned "Gujja" and "Bhulla" nets that do not spare even the
juvenile fish, has adversely affected the lives and livelihood of fishermen in
the delta.
The
livestock has also been affected. Previously when freshwater was available,
the delta had abundance of the Sohand and Pal grass that were consumed by
livestock. But lack of freshwater has affected these grasses and the livestock
population.
The
silt load brought by the Indus River has also reduced considerably transforming
rich pastures into wasteland. According to the Irrigation and Power Department
of the Government of Sindh, the silt load was 400 million tons in 1880-92. After
the Sukkur Barrage was constructed in 1933, the silt load dropped to 225 million
tons in 1940-54. It was further reduced to 100 million tons in 1977-92 after
construction of the Tarbela Dam. From 1992 onwards the silt load has been
reduced to a mere 30 million tons.
"Before
dams and barrages were built in the Indus Valley, the delta area was
crisscrossed by the distributaries of the Indus. The discharge from the river
was large enough to affect the ocean currents up to over a hundred miles from
the shore. Due to this enormous quantity of fresh water and the silt the river
brought with it, the delta lands were the richest that today constitutes
Pakistan," according to Arif Hasan.5 Today the Indus Delta portrays a
pathetic picture of impoverished farmers and fishermen, always eager to
immigrate.
References:
1-
Stanley Wolpert, A New History Of India, Oxford University Press, 1977
2-
Ibid.
3-
Jean Fairley, The Lion River The Indus, Penguin Books Ltd, London, 1975
4-
Tropical Rainforest Portfolio 1996-2001, The Netherlands, 1996
5-
Arif Hasan, The Unplanned Revolution, City Press, Karachi, 2002
*
Shahid Husain is a senior reporter with the Daily Times, Pakistan. He can be
reached at: husainwasi@hotmail.com. 
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