It’s been a pure and simple symbiosis relationship; man’s mind has managed manipulated and maneuvered flora and fauna around for personal gains since centuries.
Undoubtedly, the joyous journey of life is celebrated so wonderfully and splendidly on the soil of the sagacious Indus. Known as the Lion Fountain, stretching more than three thousand kilometers this enigma of life is born in the Tibetan Plateau.
Flowing from the world’s highest region from the unfathomable Lake Manasarovar, pulsating peace in the troubled world of today, Indus is brought to life from the birth place of Buddha.
The powerfully propelling aqua of Indus flows North West through the Ladakh and Gilgit Bsltistan regions of Kashmir, tossing and turning its tumultuous waters passing near the Nanga Parbat, blessing the soil of our land of leal, moving to its final destination in the Arabian Sea.
Its quiet unfortunate that today sans the freshwater into the Indus, the coastal region of Pakistan is running dry, forcing the fifth-largest delta in the world to shrink.
Once energizing life and it’s spirited water sprouting it’s soil, today the situation is not the same as the inhabitants of the Indus delta which include the fishermen and the agriculturists are surrounded and hounded by nothing but somber suffocation as sans the release of freshwater into the Indus due to construction of dams, the Indus has lost its velocity. This volcano of life today just whispers its way silently shackled into the sea.
It’s very alarming that today in the absence of fast flowing freshwater which could act as a bulwark and a shield stopping the sea and its opposing saline water intruding into the Indus delta today, the Indus and its delta are hauling under the heavy handedness of its inhabitants who are riding the high horses of reservoir construction as opposed to conservation of existing water resources.
Man with his material has tried to manage this mammoth magnanimous river through concrete structures such as the one we hold pride in having, the largest earth-filled dam in the world, the Tarbela Dam.
Another massive structure coming up is in the Kohistan region where the Hindukush Karakoram and Himalayan Mountain systems meet.
I hope and pray that dreams of a green Pakistan won’t be buried under the colossal eight hundred feet tall concrete construction in our blind frenzy of taming the Indus and its habitat.
As an environmental lawyer, I hope our insatiable appetite won’t devour the world famous leopard and western tragopan of Dasu.
Brought to life from Buddha’s land, it seems that Indus since centuries is trying to extinguish the dukha, ameliorating the suffering of its children and its dwellers bringing to life the real life nirvana, emancipating its people from the three poison’s of life; ignorance, attachment, and aversion.
Earth and its water are groaning under the gimmickry of mankind. We all know that dams hold back sediments that naturally replenish downstream ecosystems.
It’s been proven as a fact that large dams have led to the extinction of not only aquatic species, but has led to the disappearance along with huge losses of forest foliage and wetlands and farmland, also erosion of coastal deltas.
Water efficiency and conservation are the most simple, proven, cost-effective, and immediate ways to secure new supply and should always be the first option apart from other conservation techniques such as reuse, groundwater recharge and re-operation of existing dams. These are some of the internationally known environmentally friendly concepts that have proven around the world for being far less expensive than building new dams.
Destiny of this dying delta can be by simple soul searching and adopting environment friendly water conservation techniques.