Vanished land

The Export Processing Zone Authority which bought 200 acres of land from the Sindh government in 2006 will surely not be amused to find that 75 acres of this land remains under sea. The provincial government had at the time, in what appears to be a rather dubious deal, said the ‘lost’ land would be handed over as soon as it was reclaimed from the sea. This has not happen as yet. The matter came up when it was placed before the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday. No doubt the body will be pondering long and hard over the problem. But beyond the immediate matter of the dispute over the sale of land that does not exist is the issue of territory being lost to the sea each year. According to experts, 3.5 million acres of agricultural land along the Sindh coast has been lost to sea erosion since 1956. It is also predicted that as the erosion increases, mainly due to poor water flow into the Indus delta, the city of Karachi could be eaten away by 2060 and coastal towns well before that date.
The problem is one that has not been given sufficient attention. This is partially because it is tied into the messy politics of provinces, with Sindh agitating over the blockade of water supplies into the Indus delta by the building of barrages and dams further upstream in Punjab: which it maintains is the major cause of the seas intrusive activities. Experts agree, but there has been a lack of will to do very much about the problem despite pleas by farmers based on the coast. It is also clear that much could be done should we wish to do so. The Netherlands is a country that has been able to reclaim vast tracts of land from the sea. China is following this example. We need to do the same given the pace at which land is being lost. The fact that the Sindh government has failed to claim the 75 acres it had sold, without actually possessing it, is not very encouraging. It demonstrates we have not been able to do very much to take back the land stolen away in this fashion. Nearly a decade has passed since the promise was made that the land would be reclaimed. Nothing has happened. For the future, we need to act fast.