An eerie silence has descended on Abdullah Mir Bahr, a village in Kharo Chan, in Sindh’s coastal Sujawal district. The salt layer on the ground, the sound of the rising sea, and stray dogs wandering through empty houses, as if guarding the tomb of civilization.
Habibullah Khati, 54, is one of the few residents of the village who is still here. He will soon be moving to Karachi with his wife and children. Before leaving, he comes to say goodbye to his late mother’s grave. The earth beneath his feet crunches, a white layer of salt like an old bandage on a wound that has started to ooze again.
This was the moment when the son of the river was saying goodbye to his village, cutting himself off from his roots and leaving behind his final identity.
This was the land where once the great Indus River met the ocean, where the soil was fertile, the water sweet and life simple. But now, the ocean has changed its mood. It is advancing day by day, salting the sweet dreams of farmers, leaving the nets of fishermen empty, and reaching the houses licking the walls.
“We are surrounded by salt water,” says Habibullah. Fishing used to be his livelihood, but when fish became scarce, he took up tailoring. However, when only four of the village’s 150 families remained, even this work could not continue.
Once there were more than 40 settlements here, now the sea has swallowed them. According to the official census, the population of 26,000 in 1981 has dropped to just 11,000 today. Habibullah is also preparing to move with his family to the nearby city of Karachi, where people from many areas, including the Indus Delta, have already settled in search of a livelihood.
According to a report by the Jinnah Institute, 1.2 million people were forced to leave their homes in 20 years. Not just people, their stories, their festivals, their folk songs, everything was washed away.
This problem is not limited to salt pans. According to the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, thousands of people have been forced to migrate from several villages and towns in the Indus Delta. According to a report released by the Jinnah Institute in March 2025, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced from the delta areas in the last twenty years.
The delta is shrinking, the sea is expanding.
According to Muhammad Ali Anjum, a conservationist at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), “The delta is not only shrinking but also being submerged by seawater.”
The water flowing from the Indus River to the delta has decreased by 80 percent since the 1950s. The main reasons for this decrease include the canal system, hydroelectric projects, and the melting of glaciers due to climate change. Since 1990, the amount of salt in the water has increased by 70 percent, making land uncultivable and severely affecting fishing. Thus, the hydel power people benefited, the delta paid the price in its soil, which has now become salty, and in its breath, which is now being squeezed out breath by breath.
According to a government study (2019), 16 percent of the delta’s fertile land has become unusable due to seawater.
The ground is now salt-covered. The shrimp are dead. The fields are barren and drinking water is brought in boats from miles away. Some people have started carrying water on donkeys, as if the Middle Ages had returned.
Severe blow to agriculture and economy
The delta has always been the center of Sindh’s economy and food security. The area is not only a natural habitat for mangroves, but also the livelihood of thousands of fishermen, farmers, and small business owners.
“We have not only lost land, we have also lost our culture,” says Fatima Majeed, an environmental activist whose grandfather migrated to Karachi from Kharu Chan. “It is not just homes that are being lost here, but a whole way of life, a whole civilization. Women who have been weaving nets and packing fish for generations are now struggling to find jobs in the cities.”
Government initiatives and challenges faced
The Sindh government has launched projects to restore mangroves as these trees act as a natural defense wall against seawater. The federal government and the United Nations also launched a project to restore the Indus River Basin under the ‘Living Indus Initiative’ in 2021, which includes restoring the delta and reducing salinity.
However, land grabbing, housing projects, and development pressures are undermining these efforts. In the same areas where mangroves are being planted, housing schemes are also cutting them down.
Geographical tensions: another threat
Following recent tensions between Pakistan and India, India has unilaterally abrogated the Indus Waters Treaty. India has announced plans to build dams upstream, which could further limit the river’s water supply to Pakistan. Pakistan has called it an ‘act of war’.
Thus history has also turned out to be unfaithful. The British changed the natural flow of the river and built canals, Pakistan built dam after dam, and now India is abrogating the Indus Water Treaty and delivering the final blow to the neck of the dying delta. Pakistan calls it an ‘act of war’ but the reality is that this war has been going on for years, silent but destructive. And the Indus Delta is bearing the brunt of it.
This is not just a matter of the environment, but also of regional security and the agricultural economy. But perhaps the greatest misfortune of the Indus Delta is the ignorant notion that river water flowing into the sea is a loss of water.
The future of local residents?
“Who leaves their land willingly? A person leaves their homeland only when there is no other way,” asks Haji Karam, whose home has been submerged by rising sea levels. He has built a new home away from the sea and hopes that others will do the same.
But this solution is temporary. When an entire ecosystem is destroyed, it is not enough to just build a house, it is necessary to save the system.
The Indus Delta, once a hub of life, is now on the brink of death. Fishing villages, farmers’ fields, and the fertility of the land are all disappearing over time. Climate change, government failure, and regional tensions have combined to create a crisis whose effects will not be limited to the Sajawal or the Sahar Chaan.
The death of the delta is, in fact, a warning to future generations that if we still do not conserve natural resources, neither the land, nor the river, nor us will survive.
Amar Gul
Report Source: AFP (Ref: Sangat Mag)