Salt crusts crackle underfoot as Habibullah Khatti walks to his mother's grave to say a final goodbye before he abandons his parched island village on Pakistan's Indus delta.

Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea in the south of the country, has triggered the collapse of farming and fishing communities.

more than 1.2 million people have been displaced from the overall Indus delta region in the last two decades

The downstream flow of water into the delta has decreased by 80% since the 1950s as a result of irrigation canals, hydropower dams and the impacts of climate change on glacial and snow melt, according to a 2018 study

British colonial rulers were the first to alter the course of the Indus River with canals and dams, followed more recently by dozens of hydropower projects.

Earlier this year, several military-led canal projects on the Indus River were halted when farmers in the low-lying riverine areas of Sindh province protested.

  • Ben Matthews@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    There has been a lot of rain over the Indus basin in recent years (leading to massive floods), it’s just more irregular than the formerly reliable himalayan snowmelt. Such water needs to be stored, and with big adaptation there should be hope for parts of the delta which are defendable above sea-level rise. Makes more sense than expanding Karachi, but seems forgotten by government far away.