Dr. Abdullah G. Arijo

The Indus Delta, once a thriving ecosystem and the lifeline of coastal communities, is now facing an alarming decline due to reduced freshwater flow, rising sea levels, and human activity. Spanning over 600,000 hectares, this unique region, where the mighty Indus River meets the Arabian Sea, once supported vibrant mangrove forests, abundant fisheries, and diverse wildlife. However, the construction of dams and barrages upstream, coupled with unchecked pollution and land encroachment, has led to saltwater intrusion, loss of fertile lands, and the displacement of local communities. The dying Indus Delta is not only an environmental crisis but also a cultural and economic tragedy for the people who have depended on it for generations. Addressing these challenges requires urgent action to restore its ecological balance and preserve its legacy for future generations.

The Indus River Delta is now facing severe challenges due to reduced freshwater flow, rising salinity, and environmental degradation. Over the years, the delta has shrunk significantly, with its mangrove forests and aquatic life under threat. This has profoundly impacted the livelihoods of local communities that depend on fishing and farming.

The Indus River, one of the longest rivers in the world, originates in Tibet and flows through India and Pakistan before emptying into the Arabian Sea. For thousands of years, it has been the lifeblood of numerous civilizations and remains vital for millions of people today. Its extensive canal system is crucial for agriculture and economic development; however, this poses significant concerns regarding ecological sustainability, especially for endangered species such as the Indus blind dolphin.

Canal Construction in the Indus River

The Indus River and its tributaries are utilized through one of the largest irrigation networks globally, the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS). Formalized by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan, this system comprises an extensive network of dams, barrages, and canals designed to efficiently distribute water for agricultural use. Key components include:

• Tarbela and Mangla Dams: These large reservoirs regulate water flow and provide hydroelectric power.
• Link Canals: Constructed to redistribute water among the Indus tributaries.
• Irrigation Canals: Used to transport water to agricultural fields, including major canals such as the Upper and Lower Bari Doab Canals and the Sukkur and Guddu barrages.

Impact on Agriculture and Economy

The construction of canals has transformed Pakistan’s agricultural sector and contributed significantly to its economy:

• Increased Agricultural Productivity: The canal system supplies water to approximately 80% of Pakistan’s farmland, supporting major crops like wheat, rice, cotton, and sugarcane.
• Economic Growth: The agriculture sector, which contributes around 19% to Pakistan’s GDP and employs a significant portion of the population, is highly dependent on the Indus River system.
• Food Security: Reliable water availability has ensured steady food production, reducing dependency on imports and stabilizing the economy.

However, challenges persist, including waterlogging, soil salinity, and inequitable water distribution. Furthermore, climate change and increasing demand for water put additional pressure on the system.

Ecological Consequences

While canal construction has been beneficial for agriculture and economic development, it has severely impacted the Indus River ecosystem:

Reduced River Flow: Water diversion for irrigation has significantly decreased the flow of the Indus River, leading to habitat destruction.

• Indus Blind Dolphin Decline: One of the most notable ecological impacts is on the Indus blind dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor). These freshwater cetaceans, once found throughout the Indus, are now mostly confined to the stretches between barrages due to habitat fragmentation. Reduced water flow, pollution, and accidental entrapment in fishing nets further threaten their population.
• Wetland Degradation: Many wetlands and floodplains that depend on seasonal floods have shrunk, impacting biodiversity and traditional livelihoods.
• Salinity Intrusion: In the lower Indus Delta, decreased freshwater flow allows seawater to encroach inland, affecting soil fertility and fisheries.

Management Strategies

To balance economic benefits with ecological preservation, the following strategies should be implemented:

• Efficient Water Management: Introduce modern irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation and laser leveling, to reduce water wastage.
• • Environmental Flow Maintenance: Ensure that a minimum flow is maintained in the Indus to support aquatic life and ecosystems.
• • Habitat Protection for Indus Blind Dolphin: Establish and enforce conservation zones where fishing and industrial activities are restricted.
• • Pollution Control: Implement stricter regulations on industrial discharge and agricultural runoff into the river.
• • Community Involvement: Engage local communities in conservation efforts through awareness campaigns and sustainable livelihood programs.
• • Transboundary Cooperation: Strengthen regional water-sharing agreements to ensure equitable and sustainable water use across borders.

The Indus River and its canal system have been instrumental in shaping the agricultural and economic landscape of Pakistan. However, the ecological costs, including the threat to the Indus blind dolphin and overall biodiversity loss, call for a balanced approach. By implementing sustainable water management practices and conservation measures, it is possible to mitigate environmental impacts while ensuring continued economic growth and food security for future generations.

The River Indus faces numerous environmental challenges that threaten its health and sustainability. Pollution, climate change, siltation, and the loss of the delta are some of the main issues. However, the once-fertile Indus Delta is shrinking due to the mismanagement of water resources and pollution, which adversely affects ecosystems and livelihoods. These challenges underscore the urgent need for sustainable water management and conservation efforts.

Read: Understanding the Controversy

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Dr. Abdullah G. Arijo is a retired professor, ex: chairman, Department of Parasitology, Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, ex-advisor Academics & P&D to Vice Chancellor, SAU Tandojam. Email: Email: abdullaharijo@gmail.com 

The post Save The Dying Indus Delta first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Malir, Karachi, Sindh

Awami Tehreek organized a protest rally on Monday March 17 in Razaqabad area against the construction of six new canals from the Indus River, corporate farming projects, and amendments to the IRSA Act.

A large number of women, children, elders, youth, laborers, and students participated in the rally. Slogans were chanted against the Cholistan Canal.

The rally was led by Awami Tehreek’s Central Senior Vice President Noor Ahmad Katiar, Malir District President Pirha Soomro, Advocate Khalid Tunio, Sindhi Shagird Tahreek’s Central President Advocate Naveed Abbas Kalhoro, Sindhi Mazdoor Tahreek’s Central General Secretary Zubair Nonari, social worker Khuda Dino Shah, Advocate Abdullah Bapar, Sattar Gopang, Aziz Langah, Sundar Kumar, Jam Sagar, Nabi Bux Sheikh, Dr. Rahmatullah Brohi, Bhoora Lal Bheel, Murtaza Zaur, and others.

Addressing the rally, Awami Tehreek’s Central Senior Vice President Noor Ahmad Katiar said, “Sindh has out rightly rejected the anti-Sindh schemes to build canals on the Indus River. Punjab must be held accountable for its 150-year-long theft of Sindh’s water. The Cholistan Canal project is a plan to massacre millions of Sindh’s people.”

He added, that PTI members in the Punjab Assembly have demanded canals from the Indus River. PTI and PPP are two sides of the same coin. President Zardari approved the canals, corporate farming, and IRSA Act amendments on 8 July 2024, while the PPP’s Sindh government is theatrically opposing them. Instead of passing resolutions in the Sindh Assembly, the PPP should separate from Shahbaz Sharif’s government.

Katiar said that Sindh is already barren due to water scarcity. The absence of water release downstream of Kotri Barrage has turned Sindh’s fertile land into barren. The destruction of the Indus Delta has left millions in Sindh suffering from hunger and unemployment.

He declared, that the six canals on the Indus River aim to annihilate the Sindhi nation. PPP’s anti-canal statements are lies, drama, and fraud. President Zardari is trying to deceive the public by approving these canals. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is a major supporter of corporate farming projects. The PPP has sold every inch of Sindh for power. The people of Sindh will fight till their last breath to protect the Indus River.

Read: Indus River Issue: Sindh calls for international intervention

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We undertook a walk along the river Sindh in Madhya Pradesh, the stretch of river between Narwar to Badarwas (which are about 180km apart). The path makes a rough North-East to South-West diagonal across Shivpuri district.

Walking through the major changes in the river’s ‘life’ – we started from the Narwar-Magroni bridge where the river is just a shallow stream that one can easily walk across, immediately followed by the reservoir of the Mohini Sagar Dam a few kms upstream. Further upstream, between Mohini Sagar and Atal Sagar Dams, there is a 5-6 km stretch of a slow moving, deep river before we arrive at the Mandikhera-Atal Sagar Dam.

Moving upstream through the massive turns along the dam, navigating through thick forests, an extant village and ghosts of submerged villages, we reach the end of the dam’s backwaters about 25-30km upstream. Here, the river gradually becomes its own self as we move upstream – through the tropical dry deciduous forests in the plateaus and riverine Acacia scrubs, to settlements in plains with acres of wheat, mustard, pea and lentil fields.

The first sight of the river was interesting. We were about to reach Narwar from Gwalior and the bus stopped midway on the bridge over the Sindh. We assumed some technical problem with the bus, which did seem quite rusty and was overcrowded as well. All passengers started deboarding the bus and we realized the reason for stoppage only once we deboarded.

It was the Magroni-Narwar Bridge, Magroni being the village on the left bank and Narwar on the right bank. No vehicle crosses the bridge without pausing on the bridge and paying respect to the river. Only after the ritual of breaking a coconut and lighting a lamp does one move forward. Locals told us that it is a bad omen if the Sindh is not worshipped. From Narwar, we started walking.

Changing landscape and biodiversity

We moved upstream, southwards through several forest types, meeting interesting species of flora and fauna. From a pure dhok forest to the region of dry deciduous broadleaf forests.

Starting along the Mohini Sagar dam, we walked through the scrub of heavily browsed Dhok (Anogeissus pendula). Dhok shows an amazing adaptation feature here – if browsed when young, the plant grows into a shrub, otherwise developing into a medium sized tree. We could see the shrubs along the reservoir neatly browsed by goats, reminding us of properly manicured tea gardens. On the hilltop, we could see the Dhok trees as high as 10-15 meters. Goats are doing a rather excellent job as gardeners there, keeping the shrubs in shape.

Further, along the river, it’s all soil and sand with rocks in between. We could see the unidirectional bent of all the riverine trees – an effect of past floods, trees almost uprooted, roots holding on to the boulders.

Walking towards Madikheda dam, the whole landscape changes eventually. Since the riverine forests have disappeared with the dam, a typical dry deciduous forest has emerged with outliers such as Gurjan (Lannea coromandelica), Salayyia (Boswellia serrata), Semra (Bombax ceiba) and Kulu (Sterculia urens), with their distinctive barks and branching. The forest stretches for at least 60-70km along the river with the hills on the left bank being the part of Madhav National Park, and just a few villages on the right bank.

We were welcomed by a riverine forest once we crossed Amola Bridge and left the dam reservoir behind. Along the flowing river was a more thorny forest dominated by species of Acacia. Katjumni (Syzygium salicifolium) was found in the streams, small river islands covered with thickets of Katjumni.

Moving further upstream, the river bed was wider with big boulders and rocks dominating the river bed, creating big pools of water in between and constantly changing direction of the stream. Further upstream, it is a slow-moving river with a level sandy bed and agricultural fields on both the banks.

In the first few days we had a checklist of over 70 bird species as we walked around the reservoir, noticing the birds and butterflies and bees feeding on wild flowers. Interestingly, there were almost no waterbird species around the dam. Once we crossed the reservoirs, the backwaters with the snags and partially submerged villages provided an excellent habitat for birds – with our checklists now showing upto 60 bird species recorded in a single day.

The snags (Dead trees) were more alive than the live trees of the forest for waterbirds, providing a space for perching, nesting and also acting as reservoirs of food, a lookout for fish hunting. Snags clearly signified their importance as a habitat for waterbird species.

Madhya Pradesh is popularly known for its historical buildings, and these old buildings are also perfect roosting sites for bats. During our walk, we came across two species of bats – Tomb bat and Mouse tailed bats – roosting on walls and the domes in a very large number at Surwaya ki Garhi, an old archaeological site.

Deep ravines and gullies forming their own microhabitats, pools in the stream beds make small ecosystems with tadpoles and skittering frogs and smaller fishes, Muggers (crocodiles) found basking on rocks or sandy slopes, and Fig species with its large supportive roots often found hanging on to cliffs along the river.

Sindh – a dynamically changing river with dynamically changing landscapes.

People and nature

One of the ideas most inconceivable for us was to try and imagine a life after getting displaced. What happens once someone’s house and village is drowned in a dam? The Atal Sagar dam was completed recently (2008), and 9 villages were displaced with “compensation” in the early 2000s to different locations along Shivpuri-Jhansi highway.

A brief meeting with Sahariya adivasis at Chhatpur Colony Punarwas Phase 2, talking about their life before the dam:

It was late morning and people were almost ready to leave for their day’s work. Our questions made them nostalgic about those days. “Yha kachu nahi hai, Sarkar ne aakar patak dia”. Birenad Adivasi says, “Pehle ghar ke paas se Ganga maiya behti thi, ab Ganga maiya hmare ghar me birajmaan hai.”

They recalled life when the river was in their front yard, forests all around where they could take their livestock for grazing and collect forest produce, and farm their land for a self-sufficient life. When the river met their water needs, they did not have to rely on just one hand pump in the village. The compensation for their land was not enough for them to buy more expensive farm lands near the highway. They now resort to manual labour and daily wage jobs to make a living.

Beyond this, how do we compensate for the ecological loss?

In the villages further upstream like Saknaur and Badhota, past the hills and forests in the large fertile plains, we came across flocks of Blackbucks moving around, resting and grazing in the agricultural fields, with locals working simultaneously, indifferent to the antelopes. This was a region where wildlife could move around freely, unlike villages downstream where fields were fenced by thorny shrubs and branches to keep away animals.

With the expansion of agriculture in the region over decades, the blackbuck habitat has become limited, which has eventually led them to forage in the fields. Although another reason for the indifference / inaction is the helplessness of the local communities given the protection status of Blackbuck (under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972).

Our first sighting of a Mugger was at village Karmai Kalan. The actual village is submerged in the dam, and few remains of snags and electricity poles and roofs are visible in water, along with two partially submerged wells. One well is used by villagers who are still around to meet their water needs and the other one is a basking site for Muggers. Children were excited to show us the shared space with the Mugger. Further upstream, where the river is still ‘untamed’, Muggers were a regular sight.

Our hosts in village Bichi recalled an incident when a Leopard came for their dog the previous week, but ran away once the villagers woke up to the ruckus. Balraj Kaur was much attached to her pet, but acknowledged that while living in the forest, meeting its other residents is quite expected, and if one is aware, conflict could be avoided. She was also sure of the presence of lions and tigers in the forest.

At village Kenwaha, Yashwant Gurjar, our host, showed us around all the local trees and shrubs and was excited to see these trees featured in Pradip Krishen’s ‘Jungle Trees of Central India’. He could not read, but was able to very well navigate the trees from the book. Showing us some tree locations the next morning, he recalled the sweet smell of flowers of Sirs (Albizia procera) from the forests in the rain.

Dam dammed the power?

Madikheda dam was built with promises of development and employment – yet none of the villages along the Madikheda dam have a 24 hour power supply. Time slots: 8am-12pm, 12am-8am, 6pm-12am, were pre-announced for power cuts. While the timings for the power cuts are fixed, the supply remains erratic.

Karmai Kalan, the village at the edge of the reservoir where we saw a crocodile with the kids, did not have a power connection at all (Interestingly, this village does not exist in current records, and we navigated our way using GPS assistance). Only once we met the flowing river again upstream, that a 24 hour power supply was seen.

We saw toilets built in all the homes under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), but often they were without a water connection. Water has to be fetched from a very far located handpump, and one has to line up in a row to get the chance to fill their vessel. Whole villages had limited handpumps. Therefore, many villagers still preferred open defecation even after having proper toilets in their houses.

Beyond sanitation and electricity, in the absence of working Primary Health Centers (PHCs) people have to travel many miles to reach nearby towns like Shivpuri, Narwar, Karera etc. for health facilities. Even the hotline number 108 for ambulances in case of emergency works only if the network permits.

Community structure, castes and tribes

Different communities reside in these villages, and one of the first questions we were asked when entering any village was, ‘Aap kon jaati ho?’ (Which caste do you belong to?). Caste determines a lot in the villages from socio-economic status, occupation, culture, dominance etc., and including school attendance & education. Adivasi, being ‘casteless’, people were indifferent to them.

The villages were also physically structured in that way. For instance, in case of village Udwaha, the only extant village among others displaced by the dam:

Entering the village, there is an orchard of Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana), a colony of adivasis, then a fenced road followed by another adivasi colony, their common hand pump. A village shop owned by Thakur-Rajput in the centre of the village, where most of the pukka houses are present, along with a school and Anganwadi (child care center). Further along the path are dwellings of Gadariya and Baghels with their livestock. Kushwaha owns the other end of the village, with big spacious courtyards for their tractors and trailers. Each community had their own hand pump.

There seemed no apparent conflict but a well understood and obvious division of land and labor. Forest resources are divided too – only the Adivasis collect the gum/resin from Salayia & Chhela trees, Gurjars use it for grazing, and firewood collection is done by everyone. Almost all the households have received an LPG cylinder but LPG cooked food causes them digestion issues. Refilling a cylinder is also a tough job, the nearest refilling centers in cities are 20-25km away while the firewood is available in the neighborhood.

Also read: Gleaning stories from River Sindh

The houses were quite vibrant and colorful, mostly painted with a coat of clayey soil from the forest. Most of the Sahariya houses for example had floral patterns made on their walls. Neem trees were a common feature of their courtyards, with a sitting space along the tree, bordered with white soil, collected from the forest.

The adivasis have been in such perpetual cultural suppression that the concept of going to school seemingly didn’t make any sense to them. A young boy replied “Adiwasi ka bacha school jata h kya, hum mehnat karte hain” when we asked whether he goes to school or not. None of the children study since it will reduce the productive working hours, and schools barely open anyway.

Teachers come only once or twice a month, and rest of the time schools remain closed. Since there is no vision or example that has convinced them that formal education could be beneficial to them, our inputs or insistence wasn’t very convincing either. They undertake all sorts of daily wage labour and barely earn enough to make ends meet.

“Shilp Haat, Udwaha” was constructed in 2014 to showcase tribal and village handicraft, as an idea to generate employment opportunities out of craft. But it didn’t make sense at all, that the community which is barely able to make ends meet could create a market in the only village in a large stretch of forest with no networks. Currently the shilp haat is a multifunctional space as a cattle shed and a place for Open Defecation.

Our appearance and people’s perceptions

Pooja writes: Having a smiling face, short height, that too in a patriarchal society, people don’t take you seriously. They either looked at me with pity or often asked Bageshwer, “why have you brought this 12 year old girl?”, “if it’s your ‘searching’, you should not have brought her in this difficult terrain.” They were often confused whether I’m a girl or a boy, asking me “tum ‘मोड़ा’ (boy) hai ki ‘मोड़ी’ (girl)?” They mostly practised “Men-to-Men talk”. I sometimes felt left out of the conversation.

In the villages we visited in that region, there is the custom of elders touching the feet of younger girls – this was quite a cultural shock for us. For instance, our host at Nanakpur, near Narwar, an elderly lady who was also the head of the family, touched Pooja’s feet, her son-in-law’s feet and her daughter’s feet. In Anandpur it happened again – our host touched Pooja’s feet before bidding us farewell next morning.

Between 1950s and 60s, post-independence, when most people in Punjab and Haryana (then Punjab) were displaced, few families from that region bought some land along Sindh river, and gradually settled there with their farms. We met many such families, and with Bageshwer being from Punjab, we got huge support from them during our journey. They are one of the largest landholders in the region, farm the most fertile lands, and employ many adivasis on their farms.

As we walked with a camera and binoculars in hand, we had to explain to the people about our ‘research’ or the purpose of our walk. ‘Survey’ was the most common word people could relate to, or one of the villagers would guide into their village, telling everyone as, ‘यह सर्चिंग कर रहे हैं, नद्दी-नद्दी’ (They are looking for something along the river). Learning a few words such as ‘डांग’ for the forest, and ‘डंगराते हुए’ as walking on foot.  ‘आहो’ or ‘और का’ as yes/affirmation. Adivasis or other marginalized groups looked at us with suspicion, taking us as government officials, who might take their land for some other developmental work.

Children, adults, everyone alike were most surprised to look through binoculars and we got many responses as to their perceived use of it. Ranging from a device to monitor their cattle grazing in forests, to checking the harvest and intrusion in their fields to one of the responses being, how easy it would have been, if you could actually shoot through it, and would have made hunting easier. Someone was curious if we could look at buried treasure through this device. We often went birding with the locals, many children accompanying us to look at waterbirds. They’d tell us the habits of those birds, and we shared with them names of these birds (in our language) and their preferred habitats.

Floods of 2021

It was a trauma in almost all of the villages we’d visited, and people were still trying to recover from the losses. From lost vehicles, prized possessions, crops, livestock to even loss of human lives in a few regions. We heard stories of how the privileged people either went to Shivpuri, while some decided to volunteer tirelessly to rescue those who were stuck – like our host in Narwar. An 18-year-old boy, Harsh, along with the locals, worked to rescue faculty members stuck in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Magroni, navigating through dangerous waters. The floods were so fierce that bridges were broken both downstream and upstream of dams.

Also read: Sindh: Across its banks and beyond

In Badhota, a pregnant woman in a boat was trying to reach a safe place for giving birth, but the currents were very strong. Somehow people managed to rescue her using ropes and whatever else they could find, having to dive deep in turbulent waters to save her. In Lilwara, with the houses drowned in water, people camped uphill and had to go without food for 2-3 days. Adivasis, having their houses closest to the river, were most affected. Higher castes’ having houses built on comparatively safer lands. The division of land works against the socially marginalized.

Dams and people and forests – finding the Sindh

We have our own perceptions for how life around the river is. Being naturalists, we both saw life from an ecological lens. The biodiversity around the river, microhabitats, changing ecosystems and forests. Almost no one in any of the villages we visited could read and write. Even at present, the condition of schools is deplorable. Proper healthcare and sanitation still seem like a distant dream. Yet, the knowledge the inhabitants of these forests possess, is invaluable. Quite often, while walking through forests, we were accompanied by locals who would show us the way. They could name all the trees and shrubs, often indicating the identifiers.

An interesting contrast presents itself in how the forests have defined the lives of Adivasis – collecting and selling forest produce. And how development has defined their livelihoods – one of the common forest produce from the region is the gum of Salayia (Indian Frankincense), yet none of the inhabitants could tell the use of it. All they knew was that it sells between 150-300 rupees per kg.

The dam displaced 9 villages, mostly tribal settlements. Could the knowledge have also gotten displaced, that which was linked to that particular landscape? The plant community, the affiliations with the river, the forest produce? How can that knowledge of a free river, of the forest and the intangible wealth that existed over the centuries be compensated?

We are not sure if anything of what we do will make sense to the inhabitants we met, or we would ever be able to see things from their perspective to know them better. Yet, this walk was a small attempt to understand life around the river and come up with stories from these lesser known river stretches which never reach the headlines.

While we looked at the experiences from a broader perspective, reimagining the vastness, connecting the rivers, dams, people and biodiversity, a river emerged out of it and connecting these dots, we found an Overstory. More will be followed with detailed observations and outlooks. We are grateful to Veditum for this opportunity.

Read: Indus River: ChatGPT Endorses Concerns and Rights of Sindh

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Pooja Chand is a wildlife researcher at Ashoka University and is keen on understanding how plants and animals interact with each other. When she is not studying plants and animals, she engages herself in dance, explorations, and a lot of coffee.

Bageshwer Singh is currently working with a youth organization PAHAL, based in Jalandhar, Punjab and leading a project on Ecological Assessment of Kanjli Wetland with The Rufford Foundation, UK. Interested in identifying the plants he sees around, and understanding their interactions with other wild-life. He wonders and wanders quite often.

Bageshwer Singh and Pooja Chand are fellows who walked along River Sindh for 12 days as part of Moving Upstream Fellowship program.

This articles was originally published by Veditum India Foundation website on March 14, 2022

The post Finding the Overstory – River Sindh first appeared on Sindh Courier.

From the ‘American Rivers’ website  

Over the past 100 years, the United States led the world in dam building. We blocked and harnessed rivers for a variety of purposes. Those purposes include hydropower, irrigation, flood control and water storage.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has catalogued at least 90,000 dams greater than six-feet tall that are blocking our rivers and streams. There are tens of thousands of additional small dams that fall through the cracks of our national inventory.

While dams can benefit society, they also cause considerable harm to rivers. Dams have depleted fisheries, degraded river ecosystems, and altered recreational opportunities on nearly all of our nation’s rivers.

Today, many dams that were once at the epicenter of a community’s livelihood are now old, unsafe or no longer serving their intended purposes. Although not all dams damage rivers in exactly the same way, here are some of the most common ways they inflict harm.

FOUR WAYS DAMS DAMAGE RIVERS

DAMS BLOCK RIVERS

Dams prevent fish migration. This limits their ability to access spawning habitat, seek out food resources, and escape predation. Fish passage structures can enable a percentage of fish to pass around a dam, but their effectiveness decreases depending on the species of fish and the number of dams fish have to traverse.

DAMS SLOW RIVERS

Aquatic organisms, including fish such as salmon and river herring, depend on steady flows to guide them.

Stagnant reservoir pools disorient migrating fish and can significantly increase the duration of their migration.

Dams can also alter the timing of flows. Some hydropower dams, for example, withhold and then release water to generate power for peak demand periods.

These irregular releases destroy natural seasonal flow variations that trigger natural growth and reproduction cycles in many species.

DAMS ALTER HABITAT

Dams change the way the rivers function. They can trap sediment, burying rock riverbeds where fish spawn.

Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can also become trapped behind dams. This negatively affects the creation and maintenance of more complex habitat (e.g., riffles, pools) downstream.

Dams that divert water for power and other uses also remove water needed for healthy in-stream ecosystems. Peaking power operations can cause dramatic changes in reservoir water levels. This can leave stretches below dams completely de-watered.

DAMS IMPACT WATER QUALITY

Slow-moving or still reservoirs can heat up, resulting in abnormal temperature fluctuations which can affect sensitive species. This can lead to algal blooms and decreased oxygen levels.

Other dams decrease temperatures by releasing cooled, oxygen-deprived water from the reservoir bottom.

Read more: Disadvantages of Dams

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Courtesy: American Rivers

The post HOW DAMS DAMAGE RIVERS first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Jungshahi, Sindh

The mammoth gathering on June 7, 2023 at the fifth death anniversary of Rasool Bux Palijo, a veteran politician, at his native village near Jungshahi town of district Thatta, rejected the results of recently conducted Digital Census.

The gathering passed the resolutions rejecting the digital census results and demanded deporting all the illegal foreigners including millions of Afghans.

Another resolution categorically stated that no dam on the Indus River will be allowed to build.

Thousands of workers including women activists of Awami Tehreek and Qaumi Awami Tahreek visited the last resting place of their leader Rasool Bux Palijo and laid floral wreaths over his grave.

Rasool Bux Palijo was the Marxist leader, scholar, and human rights defender, author of over forty books, lawyer and founder of Awami Tehreek.

Leaders of various political organizations addressed the public meeting and paid homage to late leader.

President, Awami Tehreek, Lal Jarwar and others addressing the gathering said that Rasool Bux Palijo was the continuation of the great revolutionary genius of the world.

They said that under the leadership of Late Rasool Bux Palijo the brave women of Sindh fought against oppression, barbarism and martial-Laws from the platform of the Sindhyani Tahareek and courted arrests.

“Palijo brought the scientific knowledge of the revolutionary leaders to the villages in a simple and easy language. He was the wise leader of Sindh and Pakistan who spent his whole life fighting for the oppressed classes and nations of the world,” they said.

“Rasool Bux Palijo’s thoughts were a light for third world countries”, they said.

They said that the only solution to the economic and political crisis that Pakistan is facing today is to follow Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s secular principles and the 1940 resolution, and with this the country can move towards prosperity.

They said that the people of Sindh have rejected the digital census from the first day. “This census is completely aimed to turn Sindhi nation in to minority and is against the existence of Sindh.”

“The people of Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir, Gilgit and Siraiki have rejected the digital census as an attack on national integrity, therefore, the results of this population census have no constitutional and legal status.”

They said that jobs in federal institutions should be given to all nationalities on an equal basis as the Senate seats are equal for all nations, instead of establishing a monopoly of one province.

They said that the Sindh High Court has imposed a ban on Jirgas and declared Jirgas as an insult to the country’s constitution, but the Sindh government is reluctant to follow the orders of the Sindh High Court. The Sindh Apex Committee has attacked the judiciary by empowering the Jirgai system and the tribal chiefs to settle tribal disputes.

The country has become isolated in the world due to the corruption and worst policies of the rulers, the lamented.

The leaders said that Pakistan’s foreign policy has never been made keeping in mind the welfare of the People of country.

The leaders also criticized People’s Party saying that it has sold all the resources of Sindh to the federal government for the sake of power. “The current famine, unemployment, unrest and lawlessness have left Sindh at the mercy of the bandits and feudal lords who have established their own state within the state.”

“At present, life has become hell for women due to the incompetence of the Sindh government, as the women of Sindh have been left at the mercy of the tribal people,” they said.

Khushal Khan Kakar, the son of Shaheed Usman Kakar and the central president of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party said that Rasool Bux Palijo dedicated his whole life for democracy, constitution and the oppressed class. He said that now no one can occupy the land of Sindh.

Central General Secretary of Awami Workers Party Bakhshal Thalho spoke about the problems of Sindh like poverty, unemployment and other problems.

Lal Shah, Central President of Awami Jamhuri Party and intellectual Jami Chandio said that Palijo was a unique and versatile person, a writer, a scholar and a great person. Palijo was primarily a thinker and a great politician.

Alia Bakhshal, the Central Secretary of the Women’s Jamhori Mahaz, said that at this time, there is a need for a joint struggle.

Many other Leaders of different parties also addressed the event and urged that feudalism should be abolished by bringing agricultural reforms in the country, and the lands of Sindh should be distributed among the landless farmers.

They said that soon after the creation of Pakistan, the real power was taken over by the military generals employed by the British, civil bureaucracy and the feudal lords, tribal chiefs, Khans and Nawabs supported by the British imperialism.

They said that there are no labor laws of any kind in Pakistan. The workers have no rights, the higher educational institutions of Sindh have been made the center of corruption.

They said that the universities of Sindh have been made killing places for girls. They said that incidents of child abuse are increasing day by day in Sindh but the government of Sindh has become a silent spectator.

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The post Death Anniversary of Rasool Bux Palijo: Awami Tehreek rejects Digital Census Results first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Daanish Mustafa

Professor in Critical Geography

The Indus River and its tributaries are essential for the existence of Pakistan. British engineers built the world’s largest canal irrigation system in Sindh in the lower Indus in the 1840s. Many more dams, barrages, weirs and canals were built after the exit of the British Raj in 1947. The result was that the river’s flow was so disrupted, the Indus did not even reach the sea for many years. Then came the disastrous floods of 2010, which led to almost 2,000 deaths and exposed how the development model being followed along the Indus was unsustainable.

The damage from the great Pakistan floods of 2022 is as much steeped in how we think about water as it is in climate change and meteorology. It is an established principle within hazards research that a physical event only becomes a hazard when it comes into contact with vulnerable populations. Vulnerability is as embedded in developmental choices as it is in the political economy of everyday life.

The 2022 Pakistan floods have so far inundated an area roughly the size of Britain; affected 30-50 million people; and led to the deaths of more than 1,100 people. The damages suffered so far are not solely a function of the physical events of extraordinary monsoons. They are equally a function of infrastructural and engineering choices driven by certain developmental imaginaries, which are certainly not indigenous to Pakistan. The need to decolonize water in Pakistani policy and public imagination is urgent.

What does decolonization mean? To my mind, it means that there are many ways of knowing the world in addition to the dominant Western way of knowing. Taking account of those different ways of knowing, doing, imagining the past and future will enrich human life and emancipate, instead of sticking to the singular way of knowing. It does not replace science; it enriches it by bringing in the diversity of human experience.

Let a thousand streams of thought flow

So, what does decolonizing water mean? What does it mean in the context of the Pakistan floods of 2022? 150 years ago in colonial India, of which Pakistan was a part, thinking about water was locked into a modernist view of water as a ‘resource’, to the exclusion of its multiple values within local cultures.

The modernist view treated water as simply a resource for irrigation, water supply and sanitation

The modernist view treated water as simply a resource for irrigation, water supply and sanitation. The aesthetic, cultural, spiritual, and ecological values that local societies ascribed to water were simply occluded by this view. Under modernity, rivers were a giant plumbing system carrying cubic meters of water, and were expected to stay within the imposed iron limits of average flows.

But experientially for the local societies in Pakistan/India, average flows were meaningless, as were cubic meter numbers. To them, rivers were living entities with their moods and regimes, with no two days the same. People lived and interacted with rivers like they lived and interacted with their families. The vernacular knowledge, however, was as much underpinned by empirical observations and understanding of hydrology, geomorphology and meteorology as its modern counterparts; except that it articulated that knowledge in terms of a living, sentient nature instead of an inanimate physical entity subject to human constructs and principles imposed upon it.

Learn to embrace uncertainty

Floods are part of the natural rhythms of a river, as are extreme rainfall events. They do not care about staying within the statistically derived limits of average flows and precipitation that modern humans have come to expect of them.

Decolonizing water will mean decentering the modern expectations of average volumetric flows for rivers and centimeters of rainfall, and recentring vernacular experience of uncertainty, dynamism and hazardousness in thinking, policy and practice about water.

No scientist worth their salt will ever ascribe any specific event only to climate change. Climate models will tell many different stories about what the future will look like. But one thing every climate scientist will agree upon. Climate change is happening and under it, past expectations of averages and normality are simply not going to hold.

In such a scenario, decolonizing water becomes doubly urgent, to bring back the habits of mind and practice that have helped humans become the most successful species on the planet. Science and the decolonizing water agenda converge under climate change.

Since colonial times, the expectation that rivers will have average annual flows, or that rains will be within normal monthly parameters, has driven very expensive and unsustainable engineering practices and infrastructural development in the Indus Basin. This year, as mountain streams flooded, they swept away the hotels and residential buildings that were built up in Pakistan’s mountainous tourist destinations. Down south in Balochistan and Sindh, intensive rains and resultant runoff swept away more than 30 dams and inundated thousands of square kilometers of land.

As the water flowed towards its natural drainage in the Indus River in Sindh, its flow was interrupted by artificial embankments in the form of levees along the river, and road, railway and canal berms in the low-lying flat relief of the Indus plains. As of early September 2022, millions are still stranded on elevated roads and canal banks in Sindh and Balochistan, on the very bunds that are keeping impounded the water that is drowning their homes and land.

Decolonized water offers an effective critique of modern water. But does it offer any promise of relief and future protection to the millions in Pakistan? That will be subject of my next article in this two-part series.

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Daanish Mustafa is a professor in critical geography at King’s College London. His research includes water resources, hazards and development geography. He also publishes and teaches on critical geographies of violence and terror.

Courtesy: King’s College London (Posted on 07 November 2022)

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Islamabad

Pakistan will have to spend at least $23 billion on the construction of Diamir Bhasha Dam, a mega water and hydel power project. Total initial cost of Dam’s construction, including power plants, was around $14 billion.

However, it does not include the anticipated cost of $3 billion to develop transmission lines for the transmission of electricity to be generated from the hydel power plants and another $6 billion for the construction of roads to access Bhasha Dam from all sides.

Engr. Suleman Khan, chairman of Sindh Tas Water Council-based in Lahore, disclosed this in an exclusive chat from Lahore. Suleman Khan is known as an expert of water issues, including dams in Pakistan.

He said that $9 billion cost of construction of transmission lines and roads had not been mentioned in the initial cost of $14 billion of the Bhasha Dam. He pointed out that $14 billion will be required to develop dam and hydel power plants and another $9 billion will be needed for the transmission lines of power plants and roads to access the mega water and power project.

Engr. Suleman, nonetheless, candidly said that Pakistan is not in a position to finance this mega water and hydel power project. And this is one of the key reasons which delayed the construction of Diamir Bhasha Dam for two decades.

Who will finance $23 billion for this project and in these circumstances when Pakistan is experiencing a political and economic crisis? He raised this question during discussion about the project.

Suleman also stated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wants to build Bhasha Dam by 2026, against its original deadline of completion in 2028, but the real issue is that “the money will come from where”.

Bhasha Dam is perhaps the only mega project in Pakistan which carries the inauguration name plates of four previous governments – Musharraf regime, PPP government, PML-N government and PTI government.

Many governments have changed since the conception of the project and Bhasha Dam is still at its initial stage.

Moreover, the previous PTI government signed an agreement with a joint venture of China Power and Frontier Works Organization (FWO) for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam. This agreement involved an amount of 442 billion rupees. The agreement was signed on May 13, 2020.

The state controlled Chinese company, China Power, holds 70 per cent stake in this venture while the Frontier Works Organization, a mega commercial construction company, a subsidiary of the Army Welfare Trust, founded by the Pakistan Army, holds 30pc share. The contract covers construction of a diversion system, main dam, Access Bridge and the 21-MWs Tangir hydropower project.

The CEO Diamer-Bhasha dam project Amir Bashir Chaudhry and authorized representative of China Power Yang Jiandu signed the agreement on behalf of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and the joint venture, respectively. Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, Water Resources Secretary Mohammad Ashraf, Wapda chairman retired Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain, Pakistan Army engineer-in-chief Lt Gen Moazzam Ejaz and FWO director general Maj Gen Kamal Azfar attended the signing ceremony.

The Wapda chairman hoped that the Diamer-Bhasha dam would be completed as per the timelines to cope with the increasing water and electricity requirements of the country. The dam project with a total financial outlay of about Rs1, 406.5bn would be completed in 2028, he said.

The eight million acre feet (MAF) reservoir with 272-metre height will be the tallest roller compact concrete (RCC) dam in the world. It will have a spillway, 14 gates and five outlets for flushing out silt. The diversion system involves two tunnels and a diversion canal — all three having one kilometer length each. The bridge — a box girder structure — under the contract will be constructed downstream of the dam structure while the 21MW power plant will be built to meet energy requirements of the project during construction.

Bhasha Dam is a gravity dam, in the preliminary stages of construction, on the River Indus in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan on 18 October 2011. Upon completion, Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be the highest RCC dam in the world. The dam site is situated near a place called “Bhasha” in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer District, hence the name.

Upon completion, Diamer-Bhasha Dam would (i) produce 4,500 megawatts of electricity through environmentally clean hydropower generation; (ii) store an extra 8,500,000 acre feet (6.4 MAF live storage) of water for Pakistan that would be used for irrigation and drinking; (iii) extend the life of Tarbela Dam located downstream by 35 years; and (iv) control flood damage by the River Indus downstream during high floods.

It will have a height of 272 meters spillway with fourteen gates each 11.5 m x 16.24 m. The gross capacity of the reservoir will be 8,100,000 acre feet (10.0 km), with a live storage of 6,400,000 acre feet (7.9 km). Two underground power houses are being proposed, one on each side of the main dam having six turbines on each side with total installed capacity 4500 MW.

In January 2006, the Government of Pakistan announced the decision to construct 5 multi-purpose storage dams in the country during next 10–12 years.

According to the plan, Diamer-Bhasha Dam project was proposed in the first phase and in November 2008, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council formally approved the project. Council of Common Interests Pakistan, a constitutional body representing the provinces, also approved the construction of the dam. The Prime Minister of Pakistan laid the foundation stone of the project on 18 October 2011.

India’s NOC, construction & cost of Basha Dam: In November 2008, the cost of the Diamer-Bhasha dam was estimated at $12.6 billion, now delay in the construction of the dam had raised its cost to over $14 billion. The World Bank has linked funding for the construction of this dam with the issuance of a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from India _ which, in other words, is nothing but a technical way to say ‘no’ to provide loans for this project’.

History & Background of Bhasha Dam project

The initial feasibility study of Diamir Basha Dam was conducted in 1984 by Montreal Engineering Co of Canada. In the year 2000, the Musharraf government decided to build Bhasha Dam and appointed consultants for undertaking a detailed project study in 2002. NEAC Consultants, a consortium of Pakistani consultants with Binnie and Partners of the UK, completed their final report in August 2004, confirming techno-economic feasibility of the project. They also carried out engineering design and prepared project tender documents.

Consequently, Wapda invited expression of interest for carrying out detailed design and engineering and review of work done earlier. For reasons of maintaining project parameters of earlier investigations, and of short lead time, it is standard international practice to prefer for the job the consultants who originally carried out the feasibility study and basic designing. This was not done, though NEAC Consultants offer was considered technically and commercially responsive against tenders.

The contract was awarded in July 2005 to Lahmeyer International of Germany, under a joint venture known as Diamer-Bhasha Consultants. They completed project detailed engineering in March 2008 after review of previous data, studies and investigations done by NEAC Consultants. The Musharraf, Zardari and Nawaz Sharif governments ended without achieving much breakthrough in the construction of this mega project.

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Courtesy: The Truth International (Published on October 4, 2022) Received by email.

The post The construction cost of Diamir Bhasha Dam almost doubles first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Khharochhan, a settlement along the Arabian Sea Coast in Indus Delta area near Thatta, is on the verge of disappearance due to sea intrusion. Sea intrusion has already submerged the Sokhi Bunder and Khharochhan is also very much on the path to meet the same destiny

BY Kamran Khamiso Khowaja

Khharochhan, a settlement along the Arabian Sea coast in delta area of River Indus near Thatta gives a deserted look today, but once was the busiest town of the coastal belt. It had Sokhi Bunder at one end and Keti Bunder at the other. But the construction of dams and barrages on the Indus River and inadequate discharge of river water gave way to sea intrusion submerging the Sokhi Bunder, the remnants of which can still be found under the seawater approximately six Kilometers away from Keti Bunder.

Khharochhan is very much on the path to meet the same destiny as the population of the town is shrinking with every passing day. The erosion of agricultural lands has caused the migration of people to the urban areas of the district, while the well-off families have migrated to other parts of the province to make their future secure. Lack of basic amenities like water supply for drinking purpose and reducing resources of livelihood further added to their miseries and compelled them to leave their ancestral abodes.

Khharochhan, which covers an area of 778 sq. km and has a status of taluka (tehsil), while there is also a union council with same name headquartered at Baghan.

The Khharochhan union council has 41 revenue villages (Dehs) and 4385 households according to 2011 statistics of Sindh government. A report by WWF-Pakistan says that natural resource pressures have resulted from insufficient water flow downstream Kotri and at least 117,823 ha of land was lost due to sea erosion, of which 81% fell in the category of ‘totally eroded by the sea’ covering 21 Dehs (cluster of villages) out of a total of 41 Dehs in Kharo Chan, according to Sindh government’s 2004 data.

A study carried out by this scribe revealed that the population of the area has radically decreased from 70,000 to 5000 while around 3.10 million acres of land have been pocketed by sea over the past two decades.

Acute water scarcity during June and July further dents the economic state of the local growers and they keep raising their voice for the due share of river water during the particular season every year.

According to residents Reverse Osmosis Plant (RO Plants) were installed by the government but became defunct after some time due to improper maintenance. They said that owing to inadequate supply of water downstream they were facing this dilemma and Khharochhan was on the verge of outright erosion. They feared if sea intrusion continued as it has been, the days are not far away when Khharochhan would become part of the history only.

As per international laws and historically, Sindh, being the lower riparian, has prime right on Indus waters. In the 1950s and ’60s the Indus delta was green and fertile owing to sufficient water discharges but now the reduced and often no water flow in the river has destroyed a vast area of agricultural land. If we happen to face a cyclone like that of 1999, it will further destroy the coastal areas and if the erosion continues, Shahbunder will also disappear by 2035, and the sea will reach Thatta city by 2050.

The residents of Khharochhan have urged the provincial and federal government to take precautionary measures to save this area from destruction.

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