Coastal growers get poorer as rising sea level takes toll on livelihoods

HYDERABAD: Bhugra Memon union council comprising 89,970 inhabitants as per 1998 census in Badin district is faced with rising sea level, drought, salinity, and disruptions in the weather pattern due to climate change.

Once it lay between the rich fertile barrage area and the sea, which the local people recall as a time of riches and prosperity.

Farmer Dhani Bakhsh Mallah from village Mir Allah Bakhsh Talpur said they had seven irrigation branches, which flowed for a long distance and ended where they lived. “It was a prosperous area long ago and we enjoyed food crops, fruit orchards, thick trees and grazing fields for livestock rearing. This area was a natural habitat for common mammals and various bird species too,” he recalled.

For the elderly Dhani Bakhsh Mallah, the riches of natural resources began disappearing some 20-25 years ago. All families had seasonal crops, livestock, milk, and butter and they never imagined they will have to face the problems like now.

“Everything was available for people to keep them happy because of water flowing in the irrigation system throughout the year. There were old varieties of wheat, rice, sorghum, pearl millet, maize, tomato and other vegetables,” the old man narrated with nostalgia.

“Now, these things have disappeared from the area, leaving behind strange crops. All of it is gone now, and we are left to deal with the harshness,” Mallah added.

The vulnerability of Bhugra Memon to floods, cyclones, and droughts, especially during the monsoon season as the Left Bank Outfall Drainage (LBOD) carrying waste water from five districts overflows, has increased manifolds.

The LBOD water that was supposed to end is the sea wreaks havoc on the inhabitants of the villages instead, as the sea refuses to accept the effluents due to its rising level. This backflow also creates breaches, thus inundating the surrounding areas and further compounding the problems for the locals who already don’t have access to clean drinking water.

Mallah said he has witnessed a mother giving brackish water to her child. “I saw a mother mixing a spoonful of sugar in the salty water from a hand pump and giving it to her child,” he said, and added that the hand pumps were the main source of drinking water in the villages.

The water has turned brackish because of lack of fresh watercourses, most of which have dried. Rising sea intrusion has also polluted whatever underground water remains, and the matter gets further compounded with the controversial LBOD.

In the salinity-struck five districts of Sindh, many people have lost their herds, because animals drink from the dirty, poisonous drainage channels. Water in irrigation channels is also often not suitable for drinking for either humans or lovestock.

UC Bhugra Memon was the centre of devastating cyclone 02A, which hit the coast of Pakistan on May 20, 1999 causing deaths of around 400 people and a large number of livestock with major destruction and displacement. The devastating flood of LBOD in 2003 was another haunting experience for the local communities, fishermen, farmers and herders, who lost everything kept at their homes.

On top of this the area people also receive warning calls whenever the sea waves change and there are forecasts of tsunamis and cyclones. In such situations, they do not await help and simply move their families to a safer location.

The seven irrigation channels, Mir wah, Soomra Shakh, Noor wah, Ganj Bahar, Morr Shakh, Raj Wah, and Sanhi Goni have either dried completely or carry little water occasionally for cultivation as well as for community and livestock. Two major canals Phuleli and Akram wah, starting from Kotri Barrage feed these watercourses and tributaries.

However, for a major part, the area people are at the mercy of the sea level and increasing salinity, and their cries of water shortage fall on deaf ears.

Locals pointed out that the capacity of Ganj Bahar Shakh, originally a tail-end tributary of Akram wah was enough to carry water from Qazia wah Badin to famous villages Natho Khan Lund and Fazil Lund.

These two villages, flourishing till 20 years ago, have also come close to the sea due to its rise, and residents do not have any source of drinking water.

LBOD was built during 1984-1997 to reduce water logging and salinity from 1.27 million acres in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, and Nawabshah Districts. At the beginning of this project, people from Natho Khan Lund and Fazil Lund opposed the project and showed resistance. Neighbouring area people at that time remained silent as they could not understand the pros and cons of the deadly project.

Now, with most of the drinking water gone people are in a helpless situation. Lack of livelihood has also forced young workers, fishermen, farmers, and herders to move to urban centres, leaving mostly elderly people, children and women behind.

Extreme dryness has affected biodiversity with flora and fauna fighting for survival. Only very small patches of wheat, sugarcane, sunflower and tomato can be seen here and there, as farmers try to cope with water scarcity.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land around Roopa Mari, the Soomra dynasty (ruined capital) look deserted with no crop in sight.

Farmers said though the land is fertile, only a tomato crop gets them Rs700,000 depending on timely availability of water. Land value, despite fertility has drastically declined due to water availability. Deserted land fetches hardly Rs200,000/acre, whereas similar land in areas where water is available sells for Rs5 million/acre to Rs10 million/acre.

Ghous Leghari of Sindh Irrigation Drainage Authority (SIDA) said presently 60 percent shortage of water has been reported at Kotri Barrage. “Due to this, all three major canals receive hardly 10-20 percent water of its original capacity. Akram wah (lined channel) carries only 10 percent water of its original capacity of total 4,100 cusec,” he added.

Farmer Abdul Rehman Halepoto, who gets water from Akram wah through Gaja wah in Hyderabad district, asked, “How is it possible for farmers to cultivate their lands on this minimum water?”

The farmer community near Gaja wah is considered upper riparian beneficiary of Akram Wah.

Halepoto said the main Akram wah has lost its age as its lined banks are damaged.

Seepage along the canal banks has destroyed hundreds of acres of land from Hyderabad to Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts. Due to seepage from local canals farmers have lost their lands to salinity and water logging.

Presently, for four months every year from January to April, they do not have irrigation water in these canals and watercourses for cultivation. Hence, they are left with no option but to develop fish farms on their lands, abandoning agriculture farming.