By Mr Shujaudin Qureshi,
The Reuters - IUCN Media Award - 1999
Pakistan
Published in "Newsline", Pakistan, June 1999
The age-old lifestyle of the Mohanas is threatened by the polluted waters of the RBOD.
Once a beautiful lake with daffodils and lotus flowers attracting colourful migratory fowl from the chilly Siberian plateau, Manchhar lake, the habitat of the Mohanas, has been turned into a poisonous cesspool by the discharge of toxic waste from the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD).
The once-blue water of the lake has turned into greenish filth, and it has become unfit for human consumption.
Under the RBOD project, sewerage water and drainage, drawn from water-logged and salinity-hit areas of the upper parts of the country, mixed with chemicals and fertilisers from rice cultivation in upper Sindh is being disposed of in the lake through the Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain.
The fishermen, known as Mohanas, who has lived in houseboats on Manchhar lake since time immemorial, are now facing starvation and disease due to this environmental degradation which is depleting fish stock and posing a serious health hazard.
Manchhar, Pakistan's largest freshwater natural lake, is located in the district Dadu, about 300 kilometres northwest of Karachi in the Kirthar valley.
With riverine forests on the southeast side and the river Indus on the east, the picturesque lake has special significance in the history of Sindh. Its Mohanas is said to be the true progeny of the people of Moenjodaro.
"The recorded catch of the lake was once about 2,300 tons per annum, but it now stands at barely 300 to 400 tons per year," says Ghulam Qadir Rodhnani, a local landlord and fish trader.
"Poisonous water is killing our fish and us," says Yar Muhammad Mallah, 65 one of the Mohanas of Manchhar.
Fishing is the only source of income for the Mohanas. The decline in the catch has brought many families to the point of starvation. "We live our entire life on the lake and we know techniques of catching freshwater fish. Deep sea fishing is not possible for us," says Yar Muhammad.
Hundreds of Mohana families have been forced to migrate to other wetlands in search of a living.
Some have migrated to lakes in Thatta, Badin and Sanghar in recent years and ~ others have gone as far away as Mianwali in which fishermen carry their boats with them and relatives behind.
To add to their woes; the Mohanas of Manchaar are now compelled to buy drinking water from the nearby town of Bubak on payment because the lake's water is too polluted to use for drinking or cooking meals. "We buy 20 litres of drinking water for five rupees," says Muhammad Umer Mallah. Those who cannot afford to purchase water are forced to use the toxic lake water, and this has resulted in the outbreak of a number of water-borne diseases.
"Water polluted with chemical wastes can affect the nervous system and disturb the hormonal balance in the body," says Dr. Asad Ali Abro, WHO representative in Sindh.
He says the residues of fertilisers and chemicals in the water could also be carcinogenic.
There is no basic health facility at the lake. Scabies, other skin diseases, tuberculosis, polio, cholera, eye infections and stomach infections are common among the lake dwellers. Maternal and infant mortality are high as there are no trained medical attendants. The local dais (midwives) cannot handle complicated cases, and many women lose their lives before they can reach a medical facility.
There is a medical dispensary on the other side of the protective bund (embankment) of the lake, but it has no doctor, medicines or even first aid materials. "We had a good doctor some time ago but after the cancellation of the contracts of over 1,700 doctors by the Sin& government, he too has gone`" says Ghulam Qadir Rodhnani. Now there is just a compounder who makes occasional visits to an ill-stocked dispensary.
A local NGO, the Samaj Sudhar Tehrik (SST), headed by Mumtaz Rashidi, runs a family health project focussing on Manchhar Lake in collaboration with the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). "We provide medical facilities through our mobile teams," says Ghulam Haider Birhamani, project director SST.
Some school buildings have been set up by the government in areas around Manchhar lake but without any teachers or other facilities.
"The only school in our village was closed because its teacher was transferred on political grounds," says Rodhnani. Since then, no substitute has been provided. The Sindh Education Foundation had planned to set up floating schools in the lake and a study was conducted in this regard, but no progress has been made.
In any case, each Mohana household comprises about eight to 15 members, all of whom, including the children, have to earn to ensure the family's survival. The lack of educational facilities in the area also discourages parents from sending their children to school.
Manchhar lake is located on the international route of migratory birds. Being the largest reservoir and the first wetland on the route of the birds, it attracted birds in the thousands every year. Most of these migratory birds spent the entire winter season in these waters. Species like shovellers, teals, tufted duck, little ringed plover, wood sandpipers, waders, wagtails, nightingales, parakeets, storks, ducks and a host of local species added colour and life to the beauty of the lake. About 20,000 to 30,000 colourful birds visited the lake annually, but pollution has caused a reduction in the number of visiting birds.
"Due to poisonous waters and the low stock of fish in the lake, only a few birds visited us this year," says fisherman, Hot Khan, 70.
"The number of birds has been drastically reduced in recent years and they now have a shorter stay," confirms Jehangir Durrani, conservator (Wetlands), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Karachi. He says that pollution has disturbed the big diversity of Manchhar lake.
"You cannot see vegetation for hundreds of metres at the point where pollution arises in the lake from the MNV."
Fishermen catch some of these birds and sell them dead or alive in the local market. "It is like a bonus for us in the winter," says Ghulam Hussain Mirani. Although some species of birds are protected under local laws, they are purchased at a high price by the local influentials for their own consumption.
Manchhar's Mohanas have distinguished themselves in producing eatables and consumer items from the reeds and lotus plants of the lake. They also market by-products of flora.
The Mohanas make mats of lotus reeds or pan. Sindhi families use these mats for bedding and in their sitting rooms for floor covering. In most mosques in rural Sindh, they are still used as prayer mats.
The lotus products pan and deer were sought-after items in rural as well as urban areas. Its fruits (pabbun, kum), roots (bih), stems (konni) and other products like pabora and boorani had a good market in the towns of Sindh as people ate them raw or cooked them to make a flavourful dish. But since the pollution of the lake, most of these products have disappeared. "I haven't seen pabbun for many years," says Umer Mallah.
Before the MNV began to discharge RBOD effluents into the lake some five years ago, the Mohanas were well off.
On average, each family saved more than 200 rupees a day after daily expenses. The fishermen were happy and prosperous. "It was like Dubai for us," says one of the Mohanas. "Now we are unable to pay even the loan instalments on our boats on time every month," says Yar Muhammad Mallah. These loans were taken from a WHO project for the purchase and repair of the fishermen's boats.
The MNV drain, charged with rain water drawn from the nearby Kirthar hill torrents, was once a source of fresh water for the lake. It also carried fresh water from the Dadu Canal and Rice Canal in the Sukkur barrage command area.
Rain torrents, locally called nai, catch water from the Kirthar hills and from the Indus river when it is in spate in summer. Increased water levels push water through inundation-type feeder channels, called Aral and Dunster, into the lake.
But for many years now the Indus has not been in high flood and it is in spate for only two or three months in the summer. Fresh water sources have thus become scarce, while highly polluted water is dumped into the drain from RBOD.
The human effluent of a population of over 50,000 also adds to the pollution of the lake, but Dr. Pervaiz Naim, the director, of IUCN, says that this excretion clears up through a natural process and does not harm the flora and fauna of the lake in the same way as the chemicals and fertiliser residue found in the MNV water.
The MNV carries about 2,100 cusecs of effluent water with a salinity ratio of over 5,000 particles per million (ppm) to Manchhar lake, while WHO's allowed maximum safety level of water for human consumption is only 640 ppm.
Members of the Mohana community have preserved their traditional lifestyle for centuries. They spend their entire life on boats known as teens or Galya. The boat is a complete home with bedrooms, sitting places, a kitchen, furniture and utensils.
The Mohanas use small boats called batelo for fishing in the lake. They also use the batelo to reach the embankments for shopping or selling the catch. "We use the batelo as a mode of conveyance, like a ferry," says Sultan Ahmed Mallah.
An engine is fitted to each batelo, whereas the beri is rowed with the help of oars. "Wherever we find a suitable place, we station our beri. Normally our villages are formed near dense reeds in the water because these afford natural cover. Our families perform daily chores on the boats, including bathing and attending to the call of nature," says Ghulam Mustafa Mirani.
These boats are their only property. If a youth marries, his parents make a new teen for their son and if the parents are not well off, the newly-married couple live on the same boat. In this case, a separate area is created for the new couple.
A beri is nominally divided into three parts. The prow is used as a kitchen, where a specially designed clay stove is used for cooking. It is also used for taking baths, having chats in the evening or washing clothes. The cabin or central part of the boat is used as a bed-cum-living room. A cradle for children, utensils arranged on the racks, a straw mat on the ground and beds are a common sight in this section of the boat and up to 10 people can easily sleep in its cabin.
In the summer, the family sleeps on the roof of the cabin "In the case of a joint family, a couple may sleep on the roof of the beri," says Mirani.
The stem or rear part of the boat is used as a storehouse for keeping the rudder and steering oar. Five to 10 teens form a village, called doondi, in the waters, with about six to 10 family members living in each beri.
There are some floating shops in the lake where the Mohanas stock items of daily use. There is also a group among the Mohanas that dwells on open grounds (island-like patches of land appearing in the lake) in huts, made from straw. They keep cattle and livestock with them in the huts.
"When the water level rises and the islands disappear in the waters, we move to our beris," says Mirani. Their straw huts are folded and kept on the roof of the beri.
The womenfolk of the Mohanas fully take part in fishing with their mates, besides doing other family chores. Fish is the staple diet of the Mohanas, who know how to use it in different ways.
"We cook meat or vegetables on big occasions like Eid or marriages," says Sultan Ahmed Mallah.
Historian M.H. Panhwar termed the Mohanas the true descendants of the people of Moenjodaro. His views are supported by other historians like Taj Sahrai and Shaikh Khurshid Hasan, former director general of the federal department of archaeology.
Shaikh Khurshid Hassan states in a report: "As boatmen and fishermen, the Mohanas have remained in touch with all the invaders of the Indus Valley such as the Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Scythians, White Huns, Muslims and British from time to time, but none except the Muslims have influenced their way of life and culture.'? Taj Muhammad Sahrai writes in Lake Manchhar- The Most Ancient Seat of Sindhu Cultures. "Lake Manchhar was known to the Persians and the Greeks in prehistoric times."
The Mohanas of Manchhar have made the lake's waters their habitat for thousands of years, but this ancient culture is now in peril. They are suffering from starvation and death due to the government's apathy and ill-planning. WAPDA officials show little interest in saving Manchhar's Mohanas the lake itself, as well as the environment of the river Indus.
Box
"An emergency plan should be chalked out
for the clean up of Manchhar"
Brigadier (retd.) Akhtar Zamin, Director General,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sindh.
Q: What steps have been taken by EPA Sindh to control pollution in Manchhar lake?
A: Pollution in Manchhar, which is Asia's largest lake, is a cause of concern for us and the people of Sindh. We took the initiative to study the extent of pollution in the lake. I, along with an EPA team, visited the lake. Begum Mumtaz Rashidi, who is running an NGO in that area, also cooperated and guided us. Our team of experts were also accompanied by the vice chancellor of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro. We personally reviewed the situation and organised a seminar in collaboration with Mehran University to highlight the pollution issue in Manchhar lake. We also collected samples of water to ascertain the pollution level.
We have also asked the Sindh government and WAPDA to take immediate steps to stop the drainage of salinity into the late to save the flora, fauna and human life. We have proposed a long-term plan for the rehabilitation of the lake because the lake and its people should be saved from total destruction. An emergency plan should be chalked out for the cleanup of Manchhar.
Q: What were your observations during the visit?
A: The situation in and around the lake is very serious. Due to the pollution, fish catch has reduced and people are facing difficulties in getting water for drinking. Samples taken from Manchhar lake show that the salinity was over 3,000 mg/litre for most of the samples, against the desirable limit of 500 mg/litre for the fisheries and 1,000 mg/litre for drinking purposes.
Q: To what extent has pollution affected the environment of the lake?
A: A entire lake has become saline and the salinity level is increasing day by day. Besides affecting fish, pollution has caused a reduction in the number of visiting waterfowl that stay on the lake every winter. Tourism has also been affected and fishermen are migrating to other areas. The pollution is also affecting the surrounding fertile agricultural lands which are irrigated by the lake water, and this has reduced crop production and rendered thousands of people jobless.
Q: What role is the EPA playing to save the lake?
A: The EPA has taken up the issue with the government. We believe that the permanent solution is the immediate completion of the Indus Link. We have also asked the government to consider the option of disposing of the RBOD effluent into LBOD through a siphon, crossing the river.
Box
Development or Destruction?
The Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) is a long-term project to drain out sewerage and waste from towns and agricultural lands on the right bank of the river Indus. Under the Right Bank Master Plan, developed with the assistance of the Overseas Development Agency, WAPDA has undertaken some drainage works on a priority basis and these include the construction of a link canal that would dispose of the effluent from the RBOD into the river Indus.
Presently, this effluent is disposed into Manchhar lake through the Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain.
The completion of the 24-km-long Indus Link would end the degradation of Manchhar but will pose problems of its own. Environmentalists fear that it would endanger human life and the agricultural system and environment in and around the Kotri barrage. The proposed link would connect the MNV drain with the river Indus near Bhan Saeedabad town in the Sehwan subdivision of Dadu district. This will disturb the bio-diversity of the river besides posing a threat to human life and irrigation systems in lower Sindh.
The effluent discharged into Manchhar lake has already affected its aquatic life. Saline water has also destroyed the fertile agricultural lands of the Dadu district.
"When WAPDA started disposing RBOD effluent into Manchhar, it claimed that the drain would not affect it," says Nisar Effendi, Chairman of the Sindh Abadgars Association. No environmental impact assessment study was conducted before starting the project.
A study conducted by M/s. Mott MacDonald suggested three alternatives for the Indus Link.
The first option (RBOD 1), upstream of Sehwan, was rejected by WAPDA, and the second option, prepared by NESPAK in late 1994 (RBOD 2), was eventually chosen.
Cities and towns on both sides of the river, right from Attock to Hyderabad and Shahbandar, are already disposing of their untreated municipal waste into the Indus. This sewerage contains heavy metals discharged from industries.
In such a situation, further disposal of effluent through the RBOD would only add to the pollution level of the river. "If disposed into the river, the effluent will damage the canal system of Kotri Barrage," says Qamar-uz-Zaman Shah, Chairman, of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.
Hyderabad takes its drinking water directly from the Indus, whereas some of Karachi's drinking water is also drawn from Indus sources. "This virtually toxic water will pose a great danger to the people of Hyderabad and Karachi," says Nisar Effendi.
During the approval of a PC-1 for RBOD-2, the Sindh government has shown some concern regarding the disposal of the drainage effluent into the river.
But WAPDA overrode these objections and invited tenders for the first contract of the Indus Link (IL-1) in January 1995.
Then Sindh Chief Minster, Syed Abdullah Shah, fearing for the safety of his agricultural lands, expressed his apprehensions about the link and the Sindh government suggested a study on the third option, RBOD-3, which would bring the outfall downstream of Sehwan. The local people and several influential politicians raised a hue and cry over this option and the federal government then formed a committee to deal with it but failed to resolve the issue.
Eventually, WAPDA got the approval of then Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was keen on completing the project and the federal government decided to begin construction of RBOD-2.
Experts claim that RBOD-2 would affect Sehwan the most because the town's drinking water comes directly from the Indus. The third option, RBOD-3, bypasses Sehwan and disposes effluent into the Indus downstream. "We want WAPDA to consider the third option, which is the most appropriate," says Nisar Effendi.
However, environmentalists and landowners of downstream towns oppose this option as well. "Disposal of effluent in such huge quantities from any side would destroy life and around the river," says Dr. Pervaiz Naim, Director of IUCN. He claims that the only viable solution is to dispose of the effluent into artificially-constructed evaporation ponds in Bagothoro, where vast areas of barren land are available. Moreover, the maximum temperature there is over 40 degrees centigrade in summer.
Dr. Naim says the disposal of effluent into evaporation ponds would have two positive effects. On the one hand, it would save the Indus and the environment downstream and, on the other, natural grass would grow on the barren Kirthar hills with the increase in moisture in the air due to evaporation. Moreover, the ponds would serve as a source of salt which could be used for industrial purposes and also create income for the people of the locality.
WAPDA's chief engineer (west), Gian Chand Pinjani, however, disagrees, saying that the level in the proposed site of the ponds is high and a number of pumping stations would have to be set up to throw the effluent into evaporation ponds, which would incur recurring costs. Furthermore, another feasibility study would have to be conducted for their project. "We have already spent a lot of money on the study and execution of RBOD-2," says Pinjani.
"We advocated the RBOD-2 because it will discharge effluent into the river at the proposed site of Sehwan barrage. We have also considered taking the Indus Link effluent over the Indus through a siphon or pipe to dispose it into the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD)," he adds, saying that if the Sehwan Barrage project goes through, passing the effluent through the barrage structure would be cost-effective and easy.
After the remodelling of LBOD, the effluent from the right bank would be disposed of into the Arabian sea.
Experts, however, believe that this is not a workable solution, since the LBOD has itself developed technical defects. "The LBOD is a failed project and donor agencies have already stopped funds due to its defective designing, so how can it support the RBOD?" asks Dr. Pervaiz Naim.
Despite the controversy, the Nawaz Sharif government had given WAPDA the go-ahead for the project which is already 40 per cent complete. Under pressure from environmentalists and landowners, the Sindh government has since constituted a committee to examine the environmental effects of the RBOD discharge. During its first meeting in June 1998, the committee asked WAPDA and NESPAK to provide details about alternatives for disposing of effluent into the sea, including new alternative sites with cost estimates and maps.
"We have asked WAPDA to stop work on the project till a final decision is reached," says Idris Rajput, secretary of the Sindh Irrigation Department.
But WAPDA officials claim that work on the Indus Link is continuing. Contractors of the IL-3 section, Federal Works Organisation (FWO), are still working through WAPDA owes them 45 million rupees. About half the work on this section has been completed. According to WAPDA sources, the contractors for IL-1 have abandoned work and gone into litigation due to delays in payment While the fishermen of Manchhar are demanding an immediate resolution of the issue and an end to the pollution of the lake, Pinjani says, "We are still waiting for a decision by the Sindh government committee which has not met in the last 10 months."
