Expressing grave concerns over the rampant environmental degradation in the country, environmental experts have said that Pakistan, especially Sindh, is facing an environmental disaster.
A survey carried out prior to the World Environment Day (WED) has revealed that due to the decreasing water flow in downstream Kotri Barrage, seawater has started flowing 57 kilometres up the River Indus and the general environmental loss that was calculated at six percent of Pakistan’s GDP by the World Bank in 1997 has increased by two percent.
“The time has come to accept that Pakistan is facing an environmental disaster and emergency steps need to be taken to cope with environmental degradation,” said renowned environmentalist and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pakistan Coastal Ecosystem Unit Director Tahir Qureshi. “Though it is not official, I personally believe that environment loss has increased by two percent and now sits at eight percent of the GDP,” he stated.
Quoting his own recent report, Qureshi said that the reduction in river water in downstream Kotri has led to seawater flowing upstream. “We have recently initiated a survey in coastal areas of Sindh, including Karachi, Thatta and Badin, and found that the absence of freshwater ahs greatly affected the coastal belt and in Thatta, the seawater has reached 57 kilometres upstream,” he said.
The upstream flow of seawater in the River Indus has gravely affected the coastal districts of Sindh, with fishermen being forced to migrate to other districts for their survival. “The fish that were supposedly freshwater fish now fall under the category of brackish water fish, as the seawater has reached those places where once freshwater was abundant,” said Qureshi.
“Environmental issues are no more drawing room decisions. They are a tangible threat and it is a fact that our country is faced by an environmental disaster of magnanimous proportions,” said WWF-Pakistan Indus For All Programme Director Dr Ghulam Akbar, adding that the abnormal climate change and rise in the country’s mercurial level can be attributed to this widespread environmental degradation too.
“The crop pattern is already changing and if this continues, the country will face a severe food shortage in the near future,” said Ideal Rural Development Programme (IRDP) Secretary General Imtiaz Leghari.
An IUCN report reveals that mangrove forests have shrunk from 16,00,000 hectares in 1932 to 86,000 hectares in 2008. “In Thatta and Badin, the decreasing river flows are the cause of this reduction in mangroves, while in Karachi, it is the unchecked dumping of industrial effluents and land reclamation along the coastal areas,” said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan National Coordinator Masood Lohar.
“The industrial effluents have stumped the natural growth of mangroves and this is also a major reason for the climate change being witnessed,” said Lohar. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1972 and is commemorated on June 5 each year. The theme for World Environment Day 2009 is ‘Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change’. Although, the federal government of Pakistan has declared 2009 as the year of the environment, no practical steps have been taken yet at the government level.
When this scribe contacted Federal Additional Secretary for Environment Imtiaz Inayat Elhai to find out what the government is doing to ensure the release of 10 million acre feet (MAF) of water in downstream Kotri annually, which is essential to facilitate the survival of mangroves and to conserve the ecosystem, he, interestingly expressed complete ignorance about any such steps.
Source:Daily Times 05.06.09
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