A documentary featuring the devastation caused by the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) a drainage system constructed on the left bank of the Indus River to drain excessive water during floods and runoff of waterlogged lands into the Arabian Sea — was screened at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, on Saturday.The documentary titled ‘Water Scars’ has been produced by Lok Sujag and directed by a Lahore-based journalist,
Aisha Tahir.
It depicts how the ill-planned drain damaged biodiversity and natural waterways and exacerbated the aftereffects of floods and cyclones instead of serving the purpose. The documentary was first screened in Badin.Speaking during the panel discussion that followed the screening, Aisha explained the objective of the documentary was to document the local people’s voices and resistance to the project over the last 30 years.
The intended audience of the 30-minute film was not the sufferers but the people who live outside Badin to remind them of their complicity because they don’t hold accountable institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank which funded it and Wapda which executed the project.
Narain Kolhi, Badin’s climate change and social activist, said the LBOD was a complete failure. Terming the LBOD a killer project, he pointed out that rather than serving its purpose, it damaged natural beauty, freshwater lakes, trees and ecological system and mangroves.
It was not just floods that had caused damage but the flow of toxic effluent produced by industries in four districts during the monsoon season had rendered fertile land uncultivable and wells and groundwater brackish. “All these challenges are because of the extinction of natural waterways such as Hakro and Paran Dhoro rivers.
Now the situation is that people are dying of thirst and hunger,” Kolhi lamented.Makkal Shah, women rights advocate, opined that if the LBOD is removed from Badin, the landscape of the district would undergo drastic change.
Journalist Zuhaib Pirzada said the natural equilibrium between the sea and the Indus River has been completed devastated.The LBOD project, funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, was originally designed to drain excessive water during floods and the runoff of waterlogged lands in Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad into the sea at Zero Point in Badin district.
