Nature’s revenge
The problems
associated with inadequate river water flows to the Indus Delta and the
resulting effects on flora, fauna, and the lives of local people are of long
standing and becoming incrementally more serious with the passage of time. But
they were brought home in poignant manner on July 8, 2019 by a march of ‘people
without water’ from Kharo Chan, where the delta meets the Arabian Sea, to
Thatta. The march traversed 140 kilometres and grew as it progressed from the 50
people who originally set out to about 1,500 by the time they reached their
goal. This is an indication of the shared, by now virtually universal
experiences of the people of the delta and the wider area of southern Sindh. The
marchers demanded that the government declare a water emergency and resolve
their woes on a war footing. Those woes include by now worsening water
shortages (including drinking water) and the incremental loss of fertile land
to sea erosion. When nature’s balance of fresh water flows into the delta is
disturbed, the inevitable and by now discernible result is the intrusion of seawater
into the delta and its surrounding environs. This has been feeding into the
slow death of the delta for many years. The factors responsible for this sorry
state of affairs are the spread of large-scale irrigation along the Indus,
mismanagement of the available river water in the Indus basin through, for
example, wasteful traditional flood irrigation (which also causes water logging
and salinity over vast tracts), and not leaving enough water in the system to
support the natural ecological balance. Together, these factors have combined
to produce an environmental catastrophe that has not only destroyed the natural
flora and fauna of the area but also deprived a once thriving agricultural belt
producing sugarcane, cotton, wheat, rice, vegetables and fruit of its produce. The
delta protestors have added the following to their demands: remodelling of
waterways, installation of many more desalination plants and repair of
non-functional installed ones, and the closure of illegal fish farms.
The dispute
between upper riparian Punjab and water-scarce Sindh (especially the delta and
southern coastal regions) over water sharing is not new. Allegedly sharp
practices of diverting more than the legitimate share of Punjab, thereby depriving
Sindh of its due share, have been the stuff of acrimony for decades. Some
analysts argue the delta is receiving less than one-third of the water needed
to keep sea intrusion at bay. Others point to the fact that even the 10 MAF of
water agreed as an interim benchmark to flow south of Kotri in the 1991 Water
Accord is not available. The Accord agreed this interim level pending further
studies to determine the ecologically and economically necessary level required
for the delta and southern Sindh. As far as one can tell, such studies have not
been carried out, and even the interim level has not been made available. It is
amazing to note that all the global concern over climate change, which stands
poised to make conditions in water scarce areas the world over even worse, has
failed to budge the powers that be to revisit the issue of river water flows
south of Kotri. As things stand, there are fears that increasing sea intrusion
into the delta and southern coast will swallow up more and more land, thereby
destroying natural habitats and their denizens, including the mangrove swamps, and
even make human habitation and economic activity increasingly impossible. What
the authorities need to understand is that the requirements of maintaining the
natural environment and human survival in the delta and southern reaches of
Sindh in a sustainable fashion cannot be completely trumped by the upper
riparian’s irrigation needs, as seems to have been the case for too long and
led, amongst other acrimonious effects, to the ruling out of the Kalabagh Dam. Ignoring
this catastrophe any further will give birth not just to protests like the one
mentioned above, but possible ecologically and economically driven mass
migrations from the delta and surrounding areas. Surely this outcome would be
unacceptable for any civilized state.
No comments:
Post a Comment