The Best Option

Pakistan has over 1,000 km of coastline with beautiful virgin beaches. Instead of pursuing a “kill and dump” policy by the establishment, if these beaches are developed, the country can earn millions of dollars in eco-tourism. Sri Lanka focuses on education and solely depends on tourism. Pakistan can replicate the Sri Lankan experience. It should provide basic good education to the impoverished Baluch and Sindhi youth because education liberates and is reciprocal. While the student learns from the teacher, the teacher learns from the student. Bad policies, greed and adherence to unscientific policies have badly damaged the image of Pakistan that once attracted tourists from across the world, whether it was in the serene desert of Tharparkar adjoining the Great Indian Desert of Rajasthan, or along the Sindh-Balochistan coastal belt or in Dadu and Badin districts. People live in fear while an inept bureaucracy, in connivance with donor agencies, is minting money. These bureaucrats have accumulated large sums of money through kickbacks and have no affinity with nature and the local populace. Bureaucratic capital is playing a big role in Pakistan’s ailing economy. The youth is desperate to find a livelihood and, in desperation, often resorts to violence that is not only harmful yo their health but also to the society. Massive corruption is nibbling the very social fabric of Pakistani society.

Take the example of Manchar Lake. Located 18 kilometer west of Sehwan in Dadu district of Sindh and 300 kilometers north of Karachi, Manchar is a vast natural depression surrounded by hills of the Khirthar Range in the West, the Lakki hills in the East and a flood embankment in the Northeast. It is Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake; some even say it is Asia’s biggest lake, though that is debatable. But today it would be more apt to describe Manchar as a grim cesspool of agricultural effluents, including pesticides.

How did that happen? The lake’s misfortune can be traced back to 1982, when Pakistani authorities remodeled the Main Nara Valley Drain: built in 1932 by British colonialists to control floods in the Hammal Lake in southern Sindh and to protect the low-lying areas of the province. The water body has now been turned into a drain to carry industrial runoff and agricultural effluents into the Arabian Sea. But then how did that affect the Manchar? The remodeled drain -- now called the Right Bank Outfall Drain -- did not work and was redirected to Manchar. The authorities assumed that freshwater from the Indus and from the torrents that gush down the Kirthar hills during the rainy season -- the two sources of the lake -- would dilute the effluents. That was a big mistake. Manchar’s two sources don’t provide enough water to clean the effluents. Flows from the Indus are drying up because of barrages and dams in its upstream. Moreover, the thinning down of the Himalayan glaciers means that rainfall in Sindh is extremely erratic; so the Manchar does not receive much water from the torrents. This has meant that Manchar can provide scarce support to communities who have lived by it for centuries -- perhaps even ages. Amongst them are fisherfolk called the Mohanas. Architect and town planner Arif Hasan -- who also writes on environmental issues -- says, “Folklore has it that the Mohanas are descendants of people of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Some suggest that the word Mohenjo-Daro is a corruption of Mohana-jo-daro -- the tomb of Mohanas.” They are a fast dwindling community today. According to an analyst at the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, a non-governmental organization: “Once there were 60,000 Mohanas at the lake. Their population dropped to 25,000 and today it is even less due to increasing effluents in the lake.”

The effluent-ridden lake water is no longer fit for drinking. So, the Mohanas have to purchase drinking water from a supply facility at the embankment. The sinking lake has also put paid to the livelihoods of hundreds of agriculturists who diverted its waters through small canals, phats, and then used the lake-bed for farming. And that is not the end of their woes: the lake’s toxic waters have played havoc on the health of their livestock. “Viral diseases, such as rinderpest and foot and mouth, and bacterial diseases such as hemorrhage septicemia and black quarter have become common among livestock. The animals in the area are also plagued by tympina/bloat and acidosis,” say experts.