Rising sea level feared to engulf coastal villages; crops under water

HYDERABAD: As sea level rises the seasonal high tides with stronger winds are hitting a dozen of coastal villages, weakening the main protective embankment along Keti Bunder town in Thatta district and mounting pressure on other vulnerable area, local reports said.

These unusual disruptions witnessed recently show that tidal flooding may occur while Sindh government, as usual, looks reluctant to take protection measures to avoid any effect in 350-km long Sindh coastal area, locals said.

Reports gathered from Thatta’s Keti Bunder, Kharochhan and Sujawal’s Shah Bunder and Jati reveal that the high tides season usually starts in May and ends till July-August, but this year its intensity hit the sea walls, specifically caused breaches in embankment along Ismail Samoon Village in Union Council Garho on Thursday late night; the village was declared inundated.

The seawater is moving to hit nearby small villages, like Punjayo Khaskheli Goth, Ibrahim Samoon Goth and Haji Mallah, locals said.

There are threats to protective wall, connecting Juho Village to Keti Bunder, which is quite fragile and in case of breach several villages may come under the sea water, because they are already located in the open.

Gulab Shah, a local community activist from Keti Bunder said though the tides usually go smoothly, but this year it started with an alarming message for the coastal area people and in some vulnerable areas families are trying to move to safer places.

Shah said the seasonal standing crops, like paddy and vegetables, have come under the seawater in the affected area, causing losses to the growers.

Shah named villages, which might face the pressure of sea water in the next four-month high tide season and demanded the government to realise the situation and take steps to strengthen the embankments and save the people and their properties.

For this month, he said, the high tides with its intensity will go unmanageable, because there is no work done by the government authorities to strengthen the protective embankments along the coastal towns and villages to avoid the loss.

Stronger winds have made the sea rough and the government authorities are yet to warn local boat crews to stay out of the sea to avert any mishap.

Frighteningly observing the tides intensity, the local activists said the seawater may hit Garho Town, comprising around 10,000 people.

“This is just a start and we have to face the situation for the next four months,” Noor Thahimor of Jati, Sujawal district said.

“We are demanding the government to take precautionary measures.”

Thahimor said the majority of people of his area still recall the haunting experience of devastation of Cyclone of May 1999, which killed 450 people, leaving destruction in wide area of three districts: Sujawal, Thatta and Badin.

Adam Janiro, a local journalist from Baghan Town, on the last land route, said the continuous sea erosion has already engulfed a wide coastal area and migration is going on.

Janiro said protection efforts are not sufficient in several areas in the face of rising tides and waves, and local communities are facing fear of inundation. 

There are some vulnerable places and ultimately the poor fishermen and farmers will suffer and may pay price of indifferent approach of the government functionaries, he added.

Usually, islander families are familiar with the ups and downs in the sea and always stay on their fishing boats in their creeks and take shelter in channels inside mangroves forests to avert any hardship.

Community activists said these people are the most vulnerable to the climate change and they must be shifted to safer places.  In their understanding, the islands are also shrinking due to sea erosion.