News
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Large portion of lower Sindh faces inundation threat* Expert says climate change could be behind rise in sea level
By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: After carrying out a survey of the low-lying areas of Sindh, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has found that a vast area of lower Sindh comprising eight districts including Karachi, could be inundated in case of a major cyclone since the sea level has risen during the past decade.
After the recent international reports surfaced that the sea level has risen around two metres during the last decade in major portions of the Indian Ocean, the PMD conducted a survey and found that eight districts of southern Sindh that are low-lying areas - Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and some portions of Umerkot and Sanghar, the sea level was between 1.5 and 2 metres.
In a report, the PMD disclosed that if the sea level continued to rise in the next 10 years, the human population living in the coastal belt of Sindh would be forced to migrate to other places.
Environmentalists have suggested that to avert such a situation, immediate measures were required such as massive tree plantation campaigns in coastal settlements, mangrove forestation along the coast and release of six percent of the available water downstream.
“The time has come that we declare the Indus delta as the 5th entity to share the water of Indus River along with the four provinces, and must allocate at least six percent of the available water to this system to avoid mass migration from the coastal belt of Sindh,” said environmentalist and WWF-Pakistan’s Indus for All Programme official, Nasir Panhwar.
He said that besides being a wildlife game sanctuary and a Ramsar site, the Indus delta also contributes a major share to the national GDP through its sea food industry and jobs for many. Now it’s not only about the restoration of the delta, but also the need to protect the human population living there,” he said.
The PMD report also stated that not only Sindh, but portions of Balochistan including areas near Gwadar, Jiwani and Pasni were also low-lying areas, but due to the presence of the vastly scattered mountainous range along with coastline, these areas were not as vulnerable as compare to those in Sindh.
“Technically the low-lying areas of Sindh must be above 10 feet of the sea level, but being only between 1.5 and 2 feet above sea level exposes them to a threat, especially a city like Karachi,” said the report.
It also disclosed that a major portion of these low-lying districts could be inundated with seawater in case a huge depression, tsunami, cyclone or sudden high tide occurs.
Geophysics expert at the University of Karachi‘s Geology Department Prof Dr Shahid Naseem said that climate change could be the reason behind the rising sea level. “Besides releasing water downstream so that mangroves could survive, we have to stop pouring industrial effluent into the sea to protect the dying mangrove forests along the Karachi coast,” said Panhwar.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk