Deep in troubled waters, coastal people continue to catch anguish

HYDERABAD: When fishermen at Kharo Chhan jetty, loading fishing gear and rations on the vessel before moving to the open sea, look up in the sky, they are filled with a premonition as biting cold and strong south-east winds are not a good omen.

It was another unfortunate year for the fishermen and coastal communities of Sindh owing to long fishing bans, cyclones, vulnerable infrastructure, coastal erosion, zero civic services, no access to potable water, healthcare, and other basic amenities, and so on and so forth.

Yaqub Otho, a community activist, commenting on the situation, said, “They (the fishermen) always expect south-west winds to bring more catch, but the south-east ones mostly disappoint them”.

“The ending year was dreadful and chaotic because cyclone after cyclone led to angry high tides, which inundated several villages, leaving people stranded for many days.” This situation had impacted the lives and livelihoods of the fishing/coastal communities badly, Otho added.

The first warning alert, the coastal people received in June, was about Cyclone Vayu, asking the crews not to move to the open sea. After Vayu, Cyclone Kyarr in October agitated the seas, raising devastating tides, hitting nearby villages along coastlines, and destroying traditional water ponds, the only sources of drinking water for the dwellers of the area.

Though, none of the sea storms hit coastal areas here, their effects were witnessed in the sea water, which developed high tides. These tides following Cyclone Kyarr laid waste to the makeshift embankments in many areas along the coastline in Thatta and Sujawal districts, resulting in sea water entering several villages, causing fear and panic among the people.

Obviously there was no loss of infrastructure, but residents, facing the high tides, were in a tight spot. Protective embankments breached in different areas, where sea water invaded nearby houses, plunging the communities in fear.

Locals said in the aftermath of Cyclone Kyarr even small-scale high tides now enter the houses through channels cut out by the sea storm.

Noor Muhammad Thahimor from Jati coastal area said, “Now warning calls about cyclones scare us as we have a very bad experience of the devastating Cyclone 02A, which hit the area on May 20, 1999, killing around 400 people”. “Since then we are afraid of sea storms.”

Thahimor said, “We saw water scarcity during the whole year 2019, which delayed seasonal crops or in some cases farmers failed to cultivate a single acre of their land”.

After Cyclone Kyarr, the coastal people had received warning calls against developing cyclones i.e., Maha and Bulbul, both in the month of November 2019. Fishermen were not prepared to face these seas storms.

Then annual ban on fishing during the months of June and July put a large number of fishermen out of work, as they do not have any alternative sources of livelihood other than fishing.

Community activists said the ban often extended up to three to four months, due to rough waters during monsoon. But this year, the situation for the fear of frequent cyclones had deteriorated further.

There are more than three million people associated with fishing directly or indirectly in Sindh marine waters and these bans deprive them of their livelihood.

Community activists pointed out the coastal area people could not taste the delicious freshwater palla fish this year, which usually travelled upstream, whenever the sea received River Indus water in April, May, and June.

Unfortunately, this year the sea received river water in August and September, comparatively colder periods of the year, and palla (hilsa or ilish), being sensitive to lower temperatures, does not swim upstream in these months. Thus, the coastal people were deprived of this fish species, this year.

About the livelihood, the community people said, “The winter is considered a good season for catching crabs for market and some years back it will hardly take a few persons travel long distances to catch those crustaceans”. “But now, more people, owing to bans, have started crabbing activities.”

Thus, locals fear overfishing of this species, especially juvenile crabs, may lead to reduce their populations dangerously low, impacting the livelihood of all in future.

Sindh has an over 350 kilometer long coastline, including areas like Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, and Karachi.

The socioeconomic condition is the same, as the fishermen remain deprived of any development, education, health, and other civic facilities.

They don’t even have access to clean drinking water. Furthermore, extreme weather phenomena cause problems for the community people.

Talking about the status of agriculture, the community activists said when farmers were preparing to cultivate the most prosperous tomato, cucumber, ridge gourd, and other vegetable crops in the months of August and September, heavy rains hit them hard.

“Then farmers sowed these crops in October and harvested them in late November and December.”

Only these two months were good for them in terms of recovering some losses, they added.

Elderly people, recalling the past happy days, said there was a time there were herds of popular livestock breeds with the coastal community families. “But now only a small number of households can afford to have a few heads of buffaloes, cows, or goats, which can survive on sea grasses,” said a senior local.

Gulab Shah, a coastal community activist, said, “We had more than 100 cows some 30-35 years back, but now we have only 10 heads of cattle”.

“This is because the natural phenomenon has destroyed natural grazing fields.” Sea intrusion had taken major chunk of land all around, including fertile agriculture land, Shah added.

Since there are no green pastures and grasslands in the wide coastal area, people seem reluctant to focus on livestock farming as an alternative source of income.

Sindh coastal regions are highly vulnerable to natural hazards due to climate change, which has hit different sectors, mainly fishing, agriculture, and livestock.

Families, earlier engaged in livestock rearing and farming, have taken up fishing for their survival. The community people do not have any data about the loss due to these frequent natural hazards.

Poor people either depend on available sources of living or prefer to live there silently or migrate to other areas in search of better living. It has been observed the migration of families from their native areas continues in search of livelihood, because of diminishing indigenous practices.

There have been only individual efforts in the shape of different welfare initiative and mitigation measures for the people so they may stay safe. Therefore, activists say, the government will have to act before these coastal communities are wiped out.