Pakistan's Indus Delta sinks

(MENAFN) Salt-crusted soil cracks underfoot as Habibullah Khatti visits his mother’s grave for a final farewell before leaving his drought-stricken village in Pakistan’s Indus delta. Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea, has devastated farming and fishing communities, forcing many residents to abandon their homes.

“The saline water has surrounded us on all sides,” said Khatti from Abdullah Mirbahar village in Kharo Chan, about 15 kilometres from the river’s mouth. Once reliant on fishing, he switched to tailoring, but with only four of the 150 households remaining, that too became unsustainable. Kharo Chan, once made up of around 40 villages, has largely disappeared beneath rising seawater, and its population has declined from 26,000 in 1981 to 11,000 in 2023. Khatti plans to relocate his family to Karachi, joining thousands of economic migrants from the delta.

The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum estimates tens of thousands have been displaced from coastal districts, while a study by the Jinnah Institute notes that over 1.2 million people have been forced from the Indus delta region in the past two decades. Reduced downstream river flow—down 80 percent since the 1950s due to dams, irrigation canals, and climate-driven changes in glacial and snow melt—has worsened seawater intrusion. Salinity has risen roughly 70 percent since 1990, destroying crops and decimating shrimp and crab populations.

“The delta is both sinking and shrinking,” said WWF conservationist Muhammad Ali Anjum. Once fertile and teeming with life, over 16 percent of the delta’s farmland is now unproductive, according to a 2019 government study. The Indus River remains critical, irrigating 80 percent of Pakistan’s farmland and supporting millions of livelihoods, but its delta faces an existential crisis from rising seas and declining freshwater flow.

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