Pakistan’s largest lake destroyed by pollution

The Manchar lake was an immense reserve of fresh water and covers over 250 square kilometers. Its shores were home to the fishing boats of the Mohanna tribe. In the seventies a plan was launched for the spillage of industrial, human and agricultural waste. Out of 200 species of fish, 14 have become extinct; there are few remaining boats; 15 thousand fishermen have emigrated in search of work.

Islamabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Thousands of tons of fish lost every year; the lives of fishermen destroyed; families who for generations lived from fish stocks forced to move elsewhere. These are the consequences of 40 years of pollution of the waters of Lake Manchar, the largest in Pakistan.

The great lake, one of the largest fresh water reserves of the country, stretches over 250 square kilometers. Until the seventies its shores were littered with fishing boats, belonging to the Mohanna tribal group. The life cycle of families unwound on the boats: from birth, these families lived on board weddings and funerals were celebrated there, their entire existence with food supplies, clothes and utensils.

In the seventies the government of the province of Sindh initiated a development plan for a sewerage system, known as the Right Bank Outfall Drain (Rbod). The project mandated that the city’s waste water, as well as industrial and agricultural waste including fertilizer used in the rice fields, be poured into the lake.

Mohammed Yusuf, an activist defending the fishermen, reports that the result has been the destruction of the land and water of the lake due to a toxic mix of saline, chemical and human waste. Today he can barely procure the necessary food for his family.

Data from the Sindh Fisheries Department reported that the lake water is no longer drinkable. In the seventies – before the spillage - they were fished more than 15 thousand tons of fish a year, while recently the catch fluctuates between 2 thousand and 3,800 tons. A survey of the Sindh Education Foundation claims that 14 species of fish have become extinct, from a total of 200 found in 1930.

Even the tribes of Mohanna has suffered from the poisoning of the only source of livelihood. "When I was little - says Yusuf - there were about 400 boats. Now, if you see no more than twenty. "

The fishermen were forced to migrate in search of work. Most moved to Karachi, others to neighboring Balochistan. Of about 20 thousand fishermen in the eighties, today there are at most 4 thousand. Mustafa Mirani, vice president of the Pakistan Fishermen Forum, says: "The lake is a gift from God. But all her beauty has been destroyed."

• Pakistan
• Manchar
• Lake
• pollution
• Mohanna
• tribes
• fish
• fishermen