The Indus Delta, the vital region where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea is rapidly deteriorating due to environmental degradation. Once rich in biodiversity and agricultural promise, the delta is now plagued by severe seawater intrusion, devastating farming and fishing communities, and forcing mass displacement.
Residents in Tension as Indus Delta Shrinks
In the small village of Abdullah Mirbahar near Kharo Chan, Habibullah Khatti prepares to leave behind his ancestral home. “The saline water has surrounded us from all four sides,” he told AFP. Only four of the village’s original 150 households remain. The rest, like thousands across the Indus Delta, have fled. Once comprising around 40 villages, much of Kharo Chan has now vanished beneath rising tides. The population fell dramatically from 26,000 in 1981 to just 11,000 by 2023, according to census data.
According to the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, tens of thousands have already been displaced from the delta’s coastal districts, and more than 1.2 million have left the region in the past 20 years, based on a Jinnah Institute study.
The Causes of Shrinkage
The causes are multilayered than Indus Delta shrinks. Since the 1950s, freshwater flow into the delta has decreased by 80%, largely due to the construction of irrigation canals, hydropower dams, and the impacts of climate change on glacial melt. A 2018 study by the US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Water noted these compounding pressures have triggered devastating saltwater intrusion. Salinity in the delta has increased by 70% since 1990, rendering much of the farmland barren and crippling local marine life, particularly shrimp and crabs.
WWF conservationist Muhammad Ali Anjum summed it up: “The delta is both sinking and shrinking.”
Effects of Delta Shrinkage
In Keti Bandar, a coastal town in Thatta district, villagers now rely on donkeys to transport drinkable water brought in by boats. Haji Karam Jat, a local fisherman, rebuilt his home farther inland after seawater swallowed his last one. “Who leaves their homeland willingly?” he said. “You only leave when you have no other choice.”
British colonial canal systems first altered the Indus River’s natural flow, and recent military-led canal projects in Sindh have stirred protests among lowland farmers. Meanwhile, India’s revocation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty poses a grave geopolitical threat. Pakistan has condemned India’s upstream dam-building plans as “an act of war,” fearing further choking of its already-depleted water resources.
Government Efforts
The government’s ‘Living Indus Initiative’, launched in 2021 with support from the United Nations, aims to address soil salinity and restore delta ecosystems. The Sindh government’s mangrove restoration efforts are another attempt at shielding coastlines, though progress is uneven. While mangroves are being revived in some areas, land grabbing and unchecked development continue to destroy others.
Climate activist Fatima Majeed, who works with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, explained that what’s at stake is more than just land. “We haven’t just lost our homes, we’ve lost our culture,” she said. Women, who once stitched nets and packed the day’s catch, now struggle to find work in the cities where they’ve migrated.
Published in SouthAsianDesk, August 5th, 2025
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