🌳 Environmental Conservation
Naseer Memon
Endangered deltas
August 17, 2026
FRESHWATER resources are under global stress for a variety of reasons. A spiralling population demands more water for crops, dairy and energy. Therefore, rivers are being fettered with storage and diversion structures. Endless thirst upstream deprives deltaic ecosystems of vital environmental flows. As rivers dry up, their deltas are suffocating. In one ............
Geographic Shield
July 18, 2026
PAKISTAN’S stance on India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is rooted in its legal rights concerning the Indus basin’s western rivers under the treaty. Walking away from the treaty is a breach of obligation by India. Moreover, the threat to stop flows to the lower riparian is a human............
Conserving land for future
April 19, 2026
Land is a primary resource for growing grains. Rapid degradation of land mass worldwide is a looming threat to food security. According to United Nations Environment Programme about 70 percent of dry land used for agriculture worldwide has been degraded. Desertification and land degradation have afflicted almost 30 percent of land area of the world and one-sixth of the world’s population. The impact is more severe in Asia—home to ........................
Decaying delta
December 21, 2024
THE Indus Delta, once a pristine ecosystem, has lost its glory. Listed amongst the 40 most biologically rich ecoregions in the world, it is also a Ramsar site. Unfortunately, its mangrove forests and fish stock in its estuaries are dwindling and communities are abandoning their abodes due to scarce livelihood resources. Abject poverty, food insecurity and morbidity are rampant. The prosperous past of the area has given way to deprivation over the decades........................
A dying lake
August 26, 2023
ONCE glorified as Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake and a pristine wetland ecosystem, Manchar Lake has degenerated into a polluted pond. In fact, Manchar is a case study in how nature’s endowment can be annihilated by poor planning; in this case, by the ill-conceived Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) project.
Historically a natural depression fed by hill torrents of the Kirthar range on its western boundary, the pond......................
Monsoon anxiety
July 25, 2023
THE onset of the monsoons has triggered a wave of anxiety as early rains have resulted in a number of causalities. The National Disaster Management Authority has already reported 133 deaths countrywide. Rain spells that began in the last week of June continue to lash different cities. Strong showers have inundated roads and underpasses in Lahore and triggered alarm in Rawalpindi as the Leh Nullah crossed the flood threshold..................
A plas-ticking bomb
June 4, 2023
If a mountain could dwarf the highest peak in your country, it would be a stack of plastic if all of it were to be heaped at a single point. Plastics have sneaked into our everyday lives without much realisation of the environmental ramifications of the change. Easy availability and unsuspected durability have turned plastics into favourite materials for countless products all over the world. According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), plastic production and use have grown .................
Another controversy
June 18, 2012
ZULFIKARABAD is emerging as yet another contentious project. Political parties, civil society and local communities of the coastal talukas of Thatta have already embarked upon a movement that barely received attention in the mainstream media.
The government, maintaining its trait of launching mega development projects without considering their social, environmental and political ramifications, swung into action by securing land in the area for the project,..........................
Climate change and the Indus Delta
December 15, 2008
IN a recent session, the Sindh Assembly has adopted a consensus resolution asking the federal government to take urgent steps for checking sea intrusion into coastal districts of Thatta and Badin.
But no serious attention has been paid to the problem as the decision makers consider the water flow down stream Kotri as waste. For them, environmental flow is an alien concept. While presenting the resolution, a member of Sindh Assembly from Badin Dr Sikandar Mandhro......................
Climate change and vulnerability of Sindh coast
April 14, 2008
Our planet has experienced damaging climatic change in recent years. It is not that the human race is experiencing climatic wrath first time in history but the alarming side is its frequency, intensity and growing unpredictability. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global world temperature has increased by 0.6oC over the last 100 years and is expected to rise further by 1.4 to 5.8oC before the end of the present century..........................
Featured Articles
Canal controversy
DAWN • August 7, 2026
RECENTLY put into trial operation, Jalalpur canal has stoked a new controversy between Punjab and Sindh. A summary of the Sindh government, raising objections against the project, was already pending with the Council of ..........
Manmade drought
June 16, 2026
ONCE again, barrages in Sindh and Balochistan are facing a crisis. In the second week of June, the Guddu and Kotri barrages received 30 per cent and 60pc less water, respectively, than their due share under the 1991 water apportionment accord. Kharif sowing is at its peak and, under a baking sun, Sindh’s growers are on the roads demanding water for their crops. At one point, in the first week of June, the flow at Guddu was only 74,500 cusecs, against an allocation of 108,340 cusecs for Sindh and Balochistan.......................
Hydro war crime
March 24, 2026
WATER is as precious a commodity as oil for countries of the Middle East. In the absence of freshwater resources, the region relies heavily on expensive, desalinated water. During the current war in the Gulf, the protagonists have not only aimed projectiles at oil depots, they have also decimated two water purification plants. If more water plants are targeted, the fallout could be worse than the consequences of blasting oil stocks. Iran has claimed that the US attacked a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, disconnecting water supply to 30 villages...........................
Global freshwater bankruptcy
Two recent reports have revealed alarming data on rapidly worsening water balance of the world. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health has just released a startling report: Living Beyond our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era. Prior to this, World Bank had released a report: Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future. Both these reports paint a grim picture of global freshwater inventories...........................
The corporate farming dream
February 23, 2025
The Punjab government has launched a project to develop agriculture in Cholistan.
However, the Sindh government has expressed reservations over the initiative. The latter has submitted a summary to the Council of Common Interests, a constitutional forum mandated with addressing concerns of provinces, including those related to sharing and use of water resources. However, a CCI meeting has not been convened for one year although the constitution mandates a quarterly meeting...........................