Karachi
The neighboring country Pakistan is facing a natural havoc these days. The Indus Delta has been destroyed in the southern part of the country. The situation is that the migration of people continues from there and about 40 villages have become deserted and with this a settlement civilization has been destroyed in Indus Delta. Indeed, this is a painful story of the villages where people traditionally used to do farming and fishing work in the Indus Delta, adjacent to the Arabian Sea at the southern end of Sindh province, but in recent years the seawater has encroached there and destroyed everything.
Now about 1.2 million people have migrated from these villages. Most of them have settled in Karachi. Recently, Habibullah Khatti Kharo, who migrated Karachi, had come to his mother’s grave to farewell to his mother’s grave in his ancestral village Mirbahar in the town, because his village is now engulfing the sea. Where his mother’s grave is, now there is an empire of sea salt. When he reached his mother’s grave, he had climbed a thick sheet of salt on his feet. The village is about 15 km from the place in Indus Delta, where the Indus River meets in the Arabian Sea.
About 1.2 million people migrated from delta
According to Habibullah, there used to be 40 villages in Kharo Chan but most of them have disappeared due to increasing sea water. According to the census data, the town’s population was close to 26000 in 1981, which has come down to 11,000 in 2023. Habibullah Khatti is now going to settle in Karachi with his family. Like him, about 1.2 million people have migrated from this delta. A report published by the think tank Jinnah Institute states that in the last two decades, about 1.2 million people have migrated from the Indus Delta.
Water flow was reduced by 80 percent
According to a study conducted by the US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water in 2018, the flow of water in the Indus Delta has been reduced by 80 per cent since the 1950s due to the effects of irrigation canals, hydroetema and glaciers and climate change on melting of snow. For this reason, there has been a disastrous entry of seawater in the delta and has engulfed the surrounding villages. The report said that the salinity of delta water has increased by about 70% since 1990, which has now become impossible to grow crops there and the species of shrimp fish and crab has been destroyed.
India also postponed the Indus Water Agreement
Starting from Tibet, the Indus River flows through Kashmir before flowing throughout Pakistan. After the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India has postponed the Indus Water Agreement. Due to this, the flow of water in Sindu has reduced. This river and its tributaries irrigate about 80% of the country’s agricultural land and are the means of livelihood of millions. This delta, built from the rich sediment accumulated on both chicks before being found by the Indus River in the sea, was once ideal for farming, fishing, mangroves and wildlife.
