ENVIRONMENT
Manchar Lake, spread over 233 kilometre area, used to be a haven for tobacco growers about 25 to 30 years ago, when water was a plenty and the surrounding land fertile for cultivating the cash crop. Growers still recall the blissful days of the past when they sowed the land with seasonal Rabi and Kharif crops that provided them with sustenance and a sustainable livelihood.
The sweet water of the Manchhar Lake in Jamshoro District was enough to irrigate more than 150,000 acres of land for both the cropping seasons, Kharif and Rabi. But now the soil has lost its fertility due to increasing salinity and pollution. The increasing pollution of the lake and the constantly dropping water table have left the land saline. The water level has dropped to an alarmingly low level because of unchecked boring as well, according to some locals.
This scarcity of water has put the livelihoods of the both the growers and fishermen under threat, rendering thousands of them jobless. Some years ago, the growers tried to invest in the Kharif crops to grow wheat, but many failed to continue this practice as the returns were too low. The necessary investment far exceeded the yield and farmers were not able to bare the losses.
According to the local community elders, there used to be at least four watercourses that streamed from the Dadu Canal, feeding lands and taking the surplus water to the River Indus through Danistar Canal, which was connected with the Manchar Lake.
Natural calamities and disasters aside, political influence is also a major reason behind water shortage and blockage of feeding streams of the Manchar Lake. Those old watercourses, which kept the surrounding lands wet and the lake fed, have been diverted or stopped by influential persons with strong political backing. It is a manmade disaster as per the locals whose life depends on the meagre agricultural economy of the region.
The Danistar canal and Arral canal were meant to feed the lake through the River Indus, as and when it needed the water. In case of a flood in the lake, the same canals carried water from the lake to the river.
Mustafa Meerani, a community leader, who keeps a close eye on the day to day situation and overall scenario of the inland water body, said, “Manchar Lake was a fresh water body and people depended on it for both drinking and other domestic purposes. It had an abundance of fish, plant species, and water vegetables...the perennial flow of water also attracted hundreds of migratory birds, which also benefitted our community.”
Mustafa grew sad as he started telling about the current situation at the lake. “Now, neither fish, nor the flora and fauna are safe in the Manchar; nor is agriculture any more thriving,” he said. Hundreds of families from the community have migrated. “Fishermen families are now living near the fresh water bodies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Some have moved within Sindh to other areas, especially near the coast and marine fishing grounds, hundreds of others have migrated to Baluchistan for their survival,” Mustafa said.
Dying agriculture has also forced many of the families to shift their hands to other sources of income. The worst affected are the sharecroppers, who are living a nightmare as their hardships have now increased more than they already were.
Tobacco used to be an important cash crop in the past, which needed very little water and grew in a short time. The land was fertile and the growers happy. They used to earn a profit of Rs50,000 per acre of tobacco. Life was prosperous and troubles very few. But now, all that is gone. In 1996, the lake was declared dirty, the declaration meant that not only were the fish unfit for consumption; the water was not suitable for watering the arable land.
Many of the community elders think that the installation of tube wells for irrigation purposes was the culprit. According to them, salinity and underground water pollution is the long term impact of the tube wells. Due to the pollution and contamination of the water reservoirs in the ground, traditional wells, hand pumps, and other water supply schemes have all become unsafe for drinking. People have to pay a larger chunk of their income to buy water for domestic consumption, as well as drinking. For the community, already facing a harsh situation, this additional burden has made matters worse.
For the elders it may be the tube wells that poisoned their water, environmentalists and activists blame the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) for the infertility and salinity around Manchar Lake.
The reservoir was built by raising embankments in the year 1974 for promoting agriculture to feed a wide area of fertile lands through the lake. Later, it proved to be a disaster; devastating the surrounding land.
When the reservoir project was completed, the lake received more water through the RBOD, which contaminated the fertile lands spreading through the water body. This resulted in salinity increasing drastically around the lake, leaving the once fertile lands useless.
Growers were left with no arable land after the disastrous contamination. Not a single acre of land can be cultivated now. The polluted water devastated the once thriving traditional sources of livelihood.
The RBOD’s toxic water – a by-product of industrial waste – has rendered the lake inhospitable. The RBOD I, II and III were designed as a mega drainage project, running along the right bank of the River Indus, carrying effluent to the sea at Gharo in Thatta district by travelling 273 kilometres.
The communities residing near the Manchar Lake were supposed to benefit from the RBOD project, but presently its tributary, Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain, which carries effluent from the upper parts of the country, streams into the lake and further pollutes the already contaminated water and once fertile lands.
For the locals, there is only one course of action. They protest the RBOD project and demand rehabilitation of the Manchar Lake and the surrounding area. For them the billions of rupees spent on the project hold no meaning, as not only has it destroyed their livelihoods, but also their homes. They have neither seen any progress nor compensation.
The writer is a staff member
