“When you live your life in heaven and then you enter hell, it is a real tragedy,” says Zahid Sakani with a painful voice. He is a resident of Baghan, a remote area, which is around 77 km from Thatta, Sindh. He and his family lived a prosperous and happy life in Kharo Chan, where the River Indus meets the Arabian Sea. It is a Taluka situated in the delta of Sindh and surrounded by water, where according to the 1981 census, there were 88,753 people but now they are less than 2,000. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced from the Indus Delta due to the sea intrusion and scarcity of sweet water. Zahid was one of them who migrated in 2001 from Khar Chan.
“We were very happy and prosperous; my grandfather had around 700 acres of agricultural land in 7 different Dehs of Kharo Chan. We had horses, goats, buffaloes, boats and gardens. There was a lot of milk and butter but alas! We lost all these things which were the causes of our happiness and prosperity. It all happened because the river Indus was stopped.” He looks towards the sewing machine and becomes sad and silent for a while. “This is now all I have – a shop on rent, where I work as a tailor.”
When Zahid and his family migrated from Kharo Chan in 2001, once there were 42 Dehs and now more than 30 had been submerged into seawater.
He says that his grandmother, whose name is Sahiba, keeps memories and stories of last 11 decades of the Indus Delta. “She witnessed its prosperity and destruction with her own eyes. She tells us the stories of past in which she was like a princess who used to visit beautiful gardens. She tells how the farmers from all over the Multan and Sukkur used to come there for harvesting and used to return with lot of wheat and rice which used to keep them and their families happy. She used to not extinguish the fire in case guests might come. These are the memories of the people of the Indus Delta.”
Zahid Sakani standing in his tailor shop (Image Credits: Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada)
I ask Zahid if it was possible that I could meet her. He agrees and we set out. After crossing the road which was under 1 foot of rainwater, we reach near his home, and he asks me to sit in a place which was made like a hut. He goes towards his home, and I remain sitting there. Never in my life have I seen mosquitoes like this before. In front of my eyes are the goats under a green shade for keeping them safe from mosquitoes. Not more than 5 minutes would have passed, and he returns with tension over his face. He offers the excuse that his grandmother was suffering from pain and fever. With anger in his voice, he says, “You see, there are no officers of government who could spray against mosquitoes.” He closes his hands in Sindhi cultural style and says; “Always together.” And we depart.
***
After traveling 30 minutes in a boat, I reach Kharo-Chan. Here the fishermen are sewing the nets. Around half a kilometre’s walk, and I reach a market and enter a shop made of wood, where a businessman of crabs is dealing with fishermen.
Khamiso Badalo (centre) sitting in the wooden hut where a middle-man buys crabs from people Image Credits: Hassaan Gondal
I look for someone of old age who could tell about stories of his past and I find him: Khamiso Badalo. He says, “I have 40 acres of agricultural land but all that is barren. How can we crop it when we don’t have water to drink? If there were no crabs we would have starved to death. I leave in the morning for catching crabs and come back after 2 pm – and can only earn 500 rupees by selling them. If the snakes bite us, we don’t have hospitals. This Bazaar and our villages were submerged due to high-tides and floods recently, but no one came here for us. We are those people who are left on their own.”
When I tell him about Zahid that I had recently met him, he says, “Zahid was from our village, I know him, he and thousands others migrated but we can’t. If we leave from here, where will we live and how will we earn? Here, we have crabs to earn with. But I wish my land could be green again.”
According to the Collins Dictionary, a delta is an area of low, flat land shaped like a triangle, where a river splits and spreads out into several branches before entering the sea. The Indus River started flowing around 40 million years ago from western Tibet and ended in lower Sindh. It created a natural equilibrium with the sea and produced a vast delta spreading around 13,000 square kilometers in three districts of Sindh, namely Thatta, Sujawal and Badin. The Indus Delta is the 5th largest in the world. Due to sediments and water, the land of the Indus Delta was very rich in agriculture and fishing. In the 20th century, yearly silt in the Indus delta was 8 millimeters, which in the 21st century is only 1 millimeter. When the Indus River was dammed and diverted, and water and sediments were not reaching the sea, the Indus delta started dying as the sea started filling its creeks.
Donkey cart carrying water canes for selling in the villages of Kharo Chan (Image Credits: Hassaan Gondal)
***
Dr. Mansoor Thalho, who is a novelist, researcher and linguist, is now living in the USA. He has written many books on the Indus Delta and his famous novel Mitti Hanra Manru has also been translated into English with the title “Sons of Soil.”
Dr. Thalho says on a video call, “If Sindh was known for its hospitality it is only because it was very rich and prosperous in the past, but now the people who used to provide butter, milk and rice to everyone who came to them are begging for a piece of bread."
The language of the people of Indus Delta has its impression in many parts of the world because rich businessmen from there used to trade all over the globe. Sookhi, a port in the Deltaic Region, had no police station, because no poverty means few crimes.
“The Indus-Delta is representative of the Indus-River, which is almost on a ventilator now,” he says.
Due to the torrential rains of July-August this year, hundreds of villages of the coastal belt are still under water. On the road near Bhaghan, a woman named Khatoon is standing with her family as her home was completely submerged. Near her tent, children and young are standing with the hope that we had brought some food for them. “It was seawater because of which we migrated and now it is rainwater and again, we are on the roads.” Khatoon’s sad eyes tell the tragedy of the last 40 years. She along with her family migrated around 12 years ago from Shah Bandar, a historical port of Sujawal, to Baghan. Shah Bandar, once a populated area, now has a population of 362 in 100 households, according to a 2017 census. People started migrating due to coastal erosion and sea-intrusion. She says, “They used to fish and it was the only profession they knew, but now there are no fish and we feed our children by begging.” According to a report by US-Pakistan Advanced Studies in Water, the deltaic region produced 5,000 tons of fish in 1951 and now it produces only 300.
Majeed Motani, head of Karachi’s chapter of Pakistan Fisher Folk, tells a story that once in the 1960s he stopped by a village near Kharo-Chan, where people provided him delicious food and Majeed asked if they had curd. At that moment, they didn’t have any. He slept there for a while. When he woke up, he saw a bottle of 10 liters hanging in front of him. Upon asking, he was told “Here is the curd you asked for.”
Near Zahid's home, goats were kept under a green shade to save them from mosquitoes Image Credits: Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada)
Motani says:
“This is how the people were rich and happy. The people of the delta were mainly involved with agriculture, fishing, cattle farming and business. People naturally tend to live in those places which provide them food and the Indus Delta was very rich in it. There are 17 creeks of the Indus Delta in Sindh and 4 are in India. Water used to flow all the year in those creeks and only in one month it used to decrease – but not stop. So, the people started agricultural activities on both sides of the creeks.
And, due to agricultural land, people belonging to cattle farming didn't spend any penny, as water and grass was easily available and this region begotten millions of animals. When water was stopped, and it didn't come down the Kotri-Barrage any more, it brought destruction and miseries for the people of the Indus Delta. Firstly, it was the agricultural land which was affected: when it did not produce grass, cattle farming became the second casualty. Water used to flow only in summer, and people used to make little dams to store the water for winter use, but that water used to become saline with passage of time.
So, the first migrations were done by those who belong to agriculture and cattle farming. Then by the fishermen. There are two types of fishing: one of the river and the other of the sea. The river water was no more so people started going into the deep sea. But the sea’s stocks of fish began to get depleted rapidly due to over-exploitation. When the water of Sindh was expropriated, the first who were affected were the people of Delta.”
Motani explains that there was a gap between sea- and river-water from Jamshoro to the Keti Bandar area. “The intervention in the ecosystem is dangerous. You see why it is flooding – it is only because the pathways of the Indus River are stopped.”
Ali Raza Wanjaro says that they only get water when there are torrential rains and floods, otherwise they face hunger in droughts. “Even migratory birds who used to frequent this region are not coming now
***
Sobbing, Mohammad Ayoub Saheto says:
“We did not have sweet water for funerals of our beloved and now we do not have a graveyard to bury them.”
He migrated from Kharo-Chan 8 months ago. Now he lives in Jhanghisar, Akbar Colony, which is 10 km away from his native village. He says that they didn't have sweet water for cooking and drinking and they used to buy a 25-liter bottle of water worth 70 rupees. They were compelled to leave, he says – otherwise they would have not have left their homes. He had a fishing vessel, and it was damaged. “I didn't have a penny to get it repaired,” he says.
Saheto says that there were once rice mills and in the nearby areas of Sookhi Bandar, thousands of people were living off the proceeds of work there. “And now those areas are completely submerged under seawater.” He adds that when he migrated, he had only a few sheep, which he started selling for the food of his family, as he had no source of income. He speaks with the pain and sorrow of a displaced person.
Abdul Jalil Khati, whose wrinkled face tells its own tales of sadness, migrated from the Indus Delta in 2009 and started living on rent in Rehri, Karachi. He says that once there was Sunar Grass – a type which used to grow in the Indus Delta. “And when buffaloes used to eat it, their milk was like honey. But now that grass is rarely available due to lack of sweet water.”
They had hundreds of acres of land but now those are under seawater.
“When people used to ask for water, we provided them with milk and lassi. When the harvesters came, they returned with their boats filled with rice and wheat.”
But after the 1999 cyclone, they lost almost everything. Khati used to work in dispensaries but as people migrated; his income started decreasing, so he, too, left.
Even now, they insist, if water starts flowing like it used to, they may return. His eyes are filled with tears as he says, “When I remember my village, my heart weeps. There was no conflict, we used to live happily. Oh, my village, how you were ravaged, I weep for you.”
Khatoon is making meals on a road near Baghan and her huts can be seen submerged under water from the recent floods Image Credits: Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada
***
As we are standing with a local climate activist of the Indus Delta, Ali Raza Wanjaro, a woman comes begging. Wanjaro tells me she had also migrated from Kharo-Chan. Her name was Hawa – a widow, she had recently migrated and started living in a camp. Her sons used to hunt for crabs but due to torrential rains for two months, they didn't go fishing. As her conditions became hand to mouth, she was here, begging.
Ali Raza Wanjaro says that they only get water when there are torrential rains and floods, otherwise they face hunger in droughts. “Even migratory birds who used to frequent this region are not coming now. 90% of the Indus delta is no more. Not only this, according to environmental experts, Thatta, Sujawal and Badin will also come under seawater in upcoming decades. The coastal areas of the world are very developed, but they do not have basic facilities.”
Amar Guriro, an environmental journalist, says that the Indus River was a mighty river in history. "It used to roar like a lion. But now it is drying. The very reason for the death of the delta is upstream diversion of Indus River. When three tributaries Ravi, Sutlej and Jhelum were given to India and dams, canals and barrages were constructed upstream, Water from Kotri downstream started flowing lesser. That is why the death of the Indus Delta became inevitable."
“I have 40 acres of agricultural land but all that is barren. How can we crop it when we don’t have water to drink? If there were no crabs we would have starved to death. I leave in the morning for catching crabs and come back after 2 pm – and can only earn 500 rupees by selling them. If the snakes bite us, we don’t have hospitals. This Bazaar and our villages were submerged due to high-tides and floods recently, but no one came here for us. We are those people who are left on their own”
Migration and Women
Migration affects women adversely as they face harassment and gender-based violence (GBV). They work for a living and also take on the burden of household chores that leads to physical and mental health deterioration. Abira Ashfaq, who is lawyer and rights activist, says that ecological destruction has gendered impacts and women and girls are likely to be more severely or at least differently impacted.
Barefooted young women carrying firewood to their homes for cooking (Image Credits: Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada)
This is not an exhaustive list but at least three ways are: migration, loss of land/livelihood, and access to services.
In migration, often men migrate first and women are left behind to manage households by themselves; if women and girls do join the city later, their lack of mobility and access to services makes them more prone to violence and at risk of poverty and isolation. Second, with loss of land and livelihood, one would have to research how women's water and fuel collection activities and their livelihoods (unpaid or paid) have been impacted. Very often in studies and research, we do not look at women's economic activities and these are either invisible or framed as marginal, even though these are not. Third, in the delta because of areas completely isolated, it is difficult for women to access health (especially reproductive health) and education services.
Afia Salam, who is an environmental journalist and climate activist, says that displacement is double jeopardy for women. It is a woman that leaves her place. Men most of the times live outside of homes, and importantly, fishermen remain outside for months. So, it is women who live in homes, and they make social networks.
“They share happiness and sorrow and this social networking is a shelter for them. So, when a woman is displaced, she loses the network, as the whole of the village can’t go with her. They disperse. That social network which provides them emotional and psychological support, they can’t build that same network in other places – it might take years.”
She further says,
“In Sindh, women are seen working in agricultural land and on roads. They do wage-based labour. But, they don’t go far like the men do. They work in close circles and groups. When they migrate, they are economically restricted as they cannot make trust in other places where they don’t know anyone. Either their movements get limited, or they face the dangers of sexual harassment as they have to do work for living. Women face more problems in urban spaces economically, as the professions they knew are not easily available in cities.”
Small children looking for fish in contaminated and toxic water at Keti Bandar
How can the Indus Delta be saved?
Professor Altaf Siyal has given the following suggestions for the protection and restoration of the delta to the government and stakeholders, which should be seriously contemplated and implemented before the entire delta is lost to the sea.
International experts recommend that at least 8.6 million acre-feet (MAF) of water per year should be released as the environmental flow below the Kotri Barrage. Moreover, superfluous water in the Kotri Barrage should also be released in the canals, so that the water reaches to the end of the delta and could control seawater intrusion.
The old streams or currents in the delta such as "Ochtu" and "Gongri" should be restored and their connection with the river should be restored again. On one hand, with their restoration, the pressure on the dams of the river will be abated during the river flood, and on the other hand, the water and sediment will flow along the entire bank through these streams – and the water from the river will reach the people of the delta.
The cultivation of mangroves should be encouraged in the desolate areas of the Indus Delta, especially in Sujawal district. Mangrove forests play a major role and are a first line of defence to alleviate the impact of other natural calamities such as floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Apart from this, the mangrove forests help to extend the coastline by holding and protecting the silt. Along with the growth of fish, shrimps and other marine life; they also provide firewood, pasture and employment to the people living in the coastal areas. Therefore, mangrove forests should be increased and illegal cutting of them should be sternly banned.
Most of the lakes and marshes present in the delta have bemired. They should be resuscitated and water accumulated through rain should be stored there. This water could be used for drinking and agriculture when needed. The water stockpiled in these lakes will also ameliorate the quality of underground water in the regions.
To decrease surface seawater intrusion, the already constructed 28-km Coastal Highway should be taken further to the periphery, and near Sajan Wari, a bridge on the Indus should be constructed till Ali Bandar. By constructing this highway, three benefits will be obtained. One is that it will be convenient, inexpensive and swift for the people of the coast to deliver agricultural and marine products to the markets of Karachi. Secondly, due to the rising level of seawater and subsiding of the land, the sea can be prevented from causing droughts. Thirdly, to reduce the intensity of cyclones or tsunamis, this highway will act as a second barrier.
The people of the Indus Delta have lost everything just because of damming, diverting and barraging of the Indus River. There is a quotation of philosopher Francis Bacon, “We cannot command Nature except by obeying her laws.”
Any other way than this will bring only destruction.
