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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Living off the lake, a small fishing community picks preservation over profits

By Jan Khaskheli
November 18, 2018

HYDERABAD: Allah Warayo Mallah, endearingly known as Warayo Mallah, who keeps his head above water by net-fishing in the small, mostly unheard-of, but breath-taking Khathar Lake, Hyderabad district, is a proud elder of a fishing community that has, despite hardships, picked preservation over profits.

The lake, which is spread over 20-25 acres of land, is named after Khathar Village (a small town and a well-known rail stop), dividing Hyderabad and Tando Muhammad Khan districts. The lake receives water from main Phuleli Canal.

Some community activists believe the lake was formed after Phuleli canal’s surplus water was released to this area during the British Raj. Since then, the locals have been living off the lake and at the same time doing everything they can to conserve it on their own.

Khathar village comprises around 700 households, majority of them belong to fishermen families.

These days, only a few families depend on this water body for earning livelihood as majority of the locals have shifted to alternative sources of income.

In the entire community, only Warayo Mallah’s family has a small boat. People say the local fishermen take a ton of precaution and use only traditional methods of fishing that are conducive to sustainability.

"We are not in a hurry to catch the entire fish from the lake in a day. We have to save this resource for future generations,” Warayo Mallah said.

Sharing the details of his practice, Mallah said it was a routine for him to row his is small boat to an appropriate spot in the lake early in the morning, cast small net and harvest the catch after two-three hours every day. “It’s enough for the survival of my small family,” he said.

Traditionally, fishing is the only source of income for the fishermen’s community residing there. Mostly, they take small fishing nets and move to knee-deep waters and return back home with little catch. They catch small amount of fish for local market and make a paltry income.

For the first time in their history, villagers have decided to pay tribute to Khathar Lake for choosing to stay with them and for giving them so much for so long as they will shower rose petals on it to commemorate the world fisheries day, falling on November 21. Fishermen leaders believe the community’s commendable efforts for the conservation of the lake need to be celebrated to spread the message and encourage other communities to follow the suit in the best of their own ways.

They have designed plans to work with wetland communities this year to raise voice to conserve water bodies, which are not only the source of living to local people but also home to wildlife species and an important freshwater ecosystem.

Freshwater bodies are facing many threats due to gaps in the government policies. The waters are either getting polluted by industrial waste all around or are drying owing to cuts in their share from irrigation canals.

According to community people, the Khathar Lake receives fish seed through the canal naturally. That is why they sell fish species in the lake, including kuriro, morakhi, their, and jarko. However, after a long time, the lake could not receive its proper share of water. It receives water occasionally because drought-like conditions have made the water scarcer than before. The shortage in canals has impacted badly on almost all the natural lakes of the province.

Since this water body is located near a major canal, it receives little water frequently during its flow. Sometimes, the situation turns disappointing when the canal itself does not carry water for irrigation purposes.

In this situation, fishermen do not receive natural fish seed through canal. It has forced the community people to buy fish seed from local market, especially of gulfam fish for farming it in the lake.

The community people, being the custodians of the lake, are always alive to the maintenance of the water body.

It may be among a few lakes, which are safe from pollution and threats of being degrading. The community people claim they have maintained vegetation cover within water and outside and never allow any harm to befall upon the ecosystem. "This is our bowl of livelihood bestowed by the nature long ago," said Warayo.

He said there were a few common wildlife species, reptiles and birds, inhabiting the vegetation around the lake and get proper share of watery habitat.

“We (wildlife and humans) live together, thus we are not harmful to each other,” the elderly fisherman said adding, “Our children are very much conscious not to harm any species in the lake, which also receives a large number of migratory birds.”

It is another thing that nobody from the fisheries department, wildlife or any other government institution comes to see the lake.

There are a total 1209 small and larger fresh water bodies, registered with the Sindh inland fisheries department. Majority of the lakes have lost their past glory and look dead due to unavailability of water and pollution.

Majeed Mallah, a community leader in Hyderabad district, said there were three more lakes namely Mayani Lake, Peero Wari lake and Samti, situated near Mayani forest. “These lakes seem to have been abandoned by certain authorities and are no longer a source of income for the community people,” Mallah said.

These lakes are connected with the River Indus. During floods these lakes come under the river and reemerge to attract community people for harvesting fishing nets after the flood recedes.

Now these lakes too have been degraded due to invasion of industrial waste. These lakes provide source of income to around three million people, residing in different areas of the province.

There is need to restore the status of these water bodies through policymaking.

Must be noted that larger lakes, like Manchhar, Hamal, Nareri, Shakoor and Baqar lakes are either drying or turning into toxic cesspools only because of the government's neglect that falls under the crimes against nature, communities, and country.