AROUND THE INDUS RIVE, Pakistan aEUR” Pakistanis refer to the Indus as the Father of the Rivers. It is also known as the Blue Water, the Lion River, and the Father of the Rivers. It was home to ancient civilizations. Its banks are home to shrines dedicated to Hindu saints and Sufi saints. Its waters also irrigate the crops which feed Pakistan’s 220,000,000 inhabitants.
The Indus is still in trouble. Some parts of the river are now drying up. The river is drying up because wealthy landowners divert its waters to water their crops. This leaves little water for small farmers. The river is now a dump site for pollutants.
Wajahat Malik, a Pakistani filmmaker, was intrigued by the idea. He wondered if there was some disconnect between the Indus and Pakistani people. They allowed this to happen to their river.
He says, “Especially for urban populations, the river is something [far] away.” He says, “I don’t believe people can relate to rivers.”
He organized an expedition in March to trek the almost 2,000-mile Indus from Pakistan, where it begins, to the Arabian Sea, where it ends. It was set among mangrove forests and an arid delta. The expedition was sponsored, among other things, by a regional hotel chain and the Pakistan Navy.
He says that he wanted to document the entire river, peoples, cultures and biodiversity, as well as any other information that came his way during his recent travels.
Malik and his team spent over 40 days rafting through the gorges of glacial melting, meeting fishermen who live on boats, and getting lost in the hundreds of miles worth of irrigation canals that branch from the river. The expedition was led by Malik’s team of adventurers, environmentalists, and a few armed seamen from Pakistan. Two rubber dinghies were also lent out by the Navy. Each night, they stopped at guest houses or homes to rest.
For their final day on the Indus, we joined them at a riverbank near Sehwan, which is famous for its soaring shrine to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, one of Pakistan’s most revered saints. Women and men pray there to the saint to ease their hardships, which were evidently all along the Indus.
Afia Salam was an environmentalist who distributed life jackets to me as I ventured onto the rubber boat.
She insists, “You must.”
The life jackets became redundant as the journey progressed. The river was shallow but wide, and the dinghies kept running into the sandbanks. This forced the seamen to switch sides of the Indus to see if the water was deeper.
The flow of the Indus and its tributary rivers has been reduced for a long time by dams built on them. This has also destroyed the once fertile delta at the river’s terminus.
According to Hassan Abbas (an expert in hydrology, water resources and a passionate supporter of the Indus), the dams have made it difficult for the river to recover from “blips”. He refers to this year’s lack of snow melt from Himalayas and rain to replenish water levels.
It has been one of the hottest years in 60 decades. This is especially due to South Asia experiencing a heatwave that occurred in April, which saw it go from winter’s cold to scorching heat. Scientists predict that this will occur more often as the climate changes.
Abbas says that rivers receive very little water when there is a dry month. This is because dams keep the snow and glacier melt from flowing into the rivers.
This is a problem for fishermen who depend on Indus water for their livelihoods. Abdul Rashid Mallah (32), whose last name literally means “fisherman” and his native Sindhi language. The water is not enough for fish to thrive. He lives near Hyderabad, a canal that runs off the Indus.
Mallah fixes his net by a canal and has a few small fish at his feet aEUR.” his afternoon catch. Mallah makes between $2 and $5 per day and, despite his small frame and slender cheeks, considers himself to be one of the fortunate ones. He says that most fishermen are unemployed. They are starving, and they are hungry.
As the expedition moves on, another problem is apparent: pipes everywhere are extracting river water using whirring pumps.
Umer Karim, an hydrologist, said that many are controlled by landowners who take it to irrigate their crops.
Satellite images of the Indus and the surrounding crops have allowed him to determine how much water was stolen. He suggests that siphoned water is likely to be used in areas with large crops farther away from the river.
Karim claims that the entire system of water distribution along the Indus is under elite capture. He refers to illegal syphoning water as “encroachments” and says that they are taking the lion’s portion.
This affects the flow of water down the river.
Another canal is located at the Indus’ tail end to water the Gharo village’s farmlands. The land is crumbled. The canals are shabby and decayed.
Jabbar Rind was prompted by a crowd to speak to us. He is a 75-year old farmer with one eye. He says, “There hasn’t been water in three years.” Along with his adult sons, he looks for work at the local bazaar for around a dollar per day.
The canal is a lush green area with rice paddies and water. Rind points out a pipe that pumps water from the canal. He says, “Big landowners take this water and don’t give it to us.” “Government officials don’t do anything, they are afraid.”
Elmuddin, Rind’s nephew says that he fears his fellow villagers at the bottom of a river is being abandoned to starvation.
He said, “Our animals are starving.” “Our agriculture is being destroyed by water. People are starving.”
Jam Khan Shoro (Irrigation Minister for the Southern Province of Sindh) acknowledged that some of these water extraction pipes were illegal. Some are approved, others may not be approved. Shoro tells NPR that some are approved and others are not. Khan claims they tried to curb water theft in Sindh through banning the construction of canals that would divert river flow.
Shoro claims that the problem was not just in agriculture.
It was drinking water aEUR” there wasn’t enough in the Sindh reservoirs for its residents. He said, “This is very dangerous.”
According to him, water tanker businessmen were also taking water from the Indus River to be sold in towns. “We are witnessing a mushrooming of growth in the cities. There are many people migrating to the area and living in slums without any infrastructure for drinking water.
Some of these business owners were present at the Indus River banks. Men waited in long lines to fill 500-gallon tanks from a pipe that extracts water from the Indus.
Nazir was next aEUR” as he had only one name, unlike most people in this area of Sindh. The tanker was attached to the tractor by bells and flowers that jangled while he moved. Nazir sold water in Sehwan, a nearby community that doesn’t have water pipes. He says that the heatwave had led to strong demand.
Nazir says that water is available to those who are able to pay $6.30 per tanker. This price is higher than the wages of two workers working in a market. His customers are mostly people who own corner shops in slums and buy water to sell by the gallon.
Yet, the water is not safe to drink. Scientists consider the Indus River to be one of the most polluted rivers in the entire world. It also serves as a dump for agricultural flows such as pesticides or phosphates.
Malik, the filmmaker, lists what he witnessed being poured into Indus during his trip. He says that he saw the sewage from the cities and towns, as well as chemical waste.
He also said that he saw “all these marble factories pouring their junk” into the Kabul River.
Malik believes that the expedition is crucial and hopes to finish his documentary film within the next few months to pitch it to international television channels such as Discovery or National Geographic.
“I want Pakistanis know that the river is Pakistan’s main artery. It’s their lifeline. It provides bread. It is our breadwinner, our fields. It is everything for us. They should also protect rivers, particularly Indus.
