Fazul Ullah
WATER, dams and canals have taken centre stage in Pakistan’s socio-political discourse in recent years.
In April this year, a mega protest and sit-in opposing the construction of six canals received both national and international media attention. As the intensity of the issue subsided over time, monsoon floods once again brought the country back to the discourse on water, dams and canals. The debate emerged between those lamenting the riverine water flowing into the sea through the Delta and others cherishing this very natural phenomenon. The question, therefore, is whether the abundant flow of water into the sea should be considered a waste or a lifeline for Deltaic communities.
Let’s deconstruct the argument of ‘wasted water’ which is based on the idea that every drop of water be stored, utilized for power generation, irrigation and urban usage. At first glance, this idea appears practical and efficient as it offers maximum use of available resource for society. However, beneath this seemingly rational argument lies a deeply anthropocentric worldview, one that treats water as a commodity rather than as part of a living ecological system. It assumes that the value of water is exhausted once it ceases to serve direct human purposes thereby reducing rivers, wetlands and deltas to mere delivery mechanisms for human productivity.
What is dismissed as ‘waste’ is, in fact, the lifeline of the Indus Delta and the millions of lives interwoven with its ecology. The freshwater that escapes the confines of irrigation canals and reservoirs to meet the sea sustains the intricate web of mangrove forests, estuarine fisheries, mudflats and coastal wetlands that together form one of South Asia’s most unique and fragile ecosystems. From times immemorial, the communities living in the Delta have depended upon this very flow for their subsistence and cultural identity.
In an interaction with the elders of Deltaic communities of village Haji Umar Thaheem in Jati, they expressed how prosperous they were some fifty to sixty years ago with plenty of fishing, livestock and forests. The reason of this prosperity was the abundant water flows into the Delta that supported the ecosystem and lives that depended on it. The current situation of many villages visited by the author shows a gloomy picture of desperation where communities seem tired of increasing salinity, soil erosion and barren lands.
Current floods resulting in abundant water flows into the Delta reminded these communities of their prosperity. This prosperity is possible if the upstream communities right from the top consider the pains of people living in the Delta. We need to think of water reaching the sea not as a waste but as a source of life that is rejuvenating the ecosystem.
The rhetoric of wasted water is an illusion that many of us have fallen into; we must get out of this and recognize how important water flows are for the Delta and lives within it. Letting rivers flow into the Delta is to honour a relationship that predates human existence. Letting rivers flow is equal to letting the Delta and communities within it live and thrive.
—The writer is an M.Phil Scholar, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam.
