‘Long march’ by residents of Indus delta culminates in city
KARACHI: Hundreds of people including women and children from Sindh’s deltaic region along with representatives of various political parties and civil society organisations concluded their long march against dams and ‘deficient’ water in Indus River near Governor House on Thursday.
Various parties and organisations supported the march and participated in it.
The march began on Oct 10 from Kharochhan in Thatta district where the Indus falls into the sea and culminated in the teeming provincial capital.
Kharochhan, as speakers said, was among the deltaic regions, which were extremely affected by coastal erosion because of continuously reduced flow of water into the sea.
Organisers said the long march participants had arrived in the city a day earlier; on Thursday they took out a final rally from Gora Qabrastan to the Fountain Roundabout (Fawwara Chowk) near Governor House.
Illahi Bux Bikik of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Khaliq Junejo of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Mazhar Rahujo of Awami Tehreek, Amanullah Shaikh of Awami Jamhoori Party and Mohammad Ali Shah of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, addressed the participants of the rally.
Rejecting the Kalabagh dam completely, the speakers said dams on Indus River were destroying Sindh villages and cities forming the Indus delta.
They said successive governments had been implementing “anti-Sindh projects” only to perpetuate their rule.
The tail-end growers of Sindh were facing tremendous difficulties due to unavailability of water, they said.
They added that the sea had already eaten up hundreds of villages and towns and if the delta was allowed to be deprived of river water required to maintain the ecosystem, “we should be ready to witness more devastation”.
The speakers said the long march from Kharochhan to Karachi was the first phase of the agitation against water shortages in the deltaic regions.
They said in the second phase, another long march would proceed from Jamshoro to Guddu Barrage. And the final long march would be taken from Guddu Barrage and would culminate in Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2018
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