THATTA, June 6: PPP MPA Humera Alwani has warned that if 35 million acre feet (MAF) water is not released to downstream Kotri, drought-like situation in the coastal area would destroy the mangrove forests, shrink livelihood resources of people, speed up environmental degradation, increase salinity, and would ultimately vanish the fishing sanctuaries in the Indus River Delta in Thatta and Badin.

She was speaking at a seminar on “Save Indus Delta” organised by the Global Development Organisation and the WWF near Keenjhar Lake late on Thursday.

She said the Indus River Delta was at the verge of destruction and the biodiversity, ecosystem, and agronomy of the delta were under threat due to the lack of water supply to downstream Kotri.

She informed the audience that historically the entire area of lower Sindh was a delta.

“Actually, there were two major deltas, one was the Sarasvati in Run of Kuch, and other one is the Indus River Delta.

“The Sarasvati dried up long ago and now only its remnants are left while the Indus Delta is also dying gradually,” she said.

She said that according to official figures of the Sindh Board of Revenue some 1.22 million acres of fertile land had been eroded by the sea till 2001 but the figure rose to two million acres in March 2005 in eight talukas of two districts of Thatta and Badin.

She also attributed the high child mortality rate and pregnancy related deaths to decrease of water flow to the deltaic area. She said the mortality rate among newborns was 18 per cent, and in mothers it was 15 per cent.

She said that the socioeconomic impact of this environmental degradation was immense. Market value of two million acres of fertile land facing soil erosion by the sea worth more than benefits of dams, she claimed.

She demanded the implementation of 1991 Water Accord and the release of 35MAF water for sustainability, rehabilitation, and protection of the Indus River Delta.

Representative of WWF Mr Zafar Khan, Aslam Jarwar, Khalid Memon, Mustafa Zour and Rasool Bux Dars also spoke on the occasion.

VILLAGES FLOODED: More than a dozen villages along the coastal towns of Keti Bandar were submerged by knee-deep water as high oceanic tides gushed into the coastal belt on Friday.