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	Unchecked pollution in the Manchhar Lake of Sindh is a killer that needs to be stopped By Ali Ahmed Rind A fish harbour with empty boats parked randomly on dilapidated berths, pickups waiting for new load, ice slabs left to melt on the ground, men sitting on cemented benches in leisure, stray dogs roaming around... The only alert creatures at the Babuk Band of Lake Manchhar were policemen who looked at us with some curiosity and those young souls begging in the name of God: "Sain, ghar men atto konay, Allah jay wastay hik kilo atto wathee dhay." (we have nothing to eat at home, in the name of God, please get us a kilo of flour). The commercial activity at the band speaks for how polluted the lake is -- it can no more support its dwellers. Spread over 200 square kilometers west of town Sehwan Sharif in Dadu district, Lake Manchhar was once home to thousands of Mohanas -- the oldest denizens of the Indus valley civilization. Some call them true descendents of people of Moen jo Daro. Their unique lifestyle is reminiscent of southern Iraq's marsh-people (boat people), called Madan. Some historians believe that the traces of earliest civilization in South Asia could be found in and around Lake Manchhar. However, the Mohana life had few windows to the outside world. A majority of them lived in boathouses called ghalio or in small boats batelo. Ghalio was a complete home with bedrooms, sittingrooms and a kitchen. In winters they trapped migratory birds for business. They cooked eatables like bih, kum, and lorh from numerous plants like lotus, which was spread all over the lake. They maintained a luxurious lifestyle and spent lavishly on marriages and melas. Till the early 1990s, when I accompanied a sight-seeing entourage to the lake, Mohanas were quite well off. Television, VCR sets and audio tape recorders were common in the colourful boats. But those joys were short lived. Now the water in the lake is heavily polluted due to the poisonous water of the Right Bank Outfall Drainage through Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD). The once recorded catch of 3000 tons of fish has been reduced to a 100 tons. As a consequence, a great number of Mohanas have migrated to other lakes, like Lake Keenjhar in Thatta district to Kalabagh in Mianwali. Perhaps the only catch available these days is that of a cheap variety of small fish, dayya, that can withstand salinity of water. Sold for five to six rupees per kilo on the port, it is used as poultry feed after drying. Other varieties of fish, which could fetch a handsome price, are rare as the polluted water is unfit for their breeding. A group of 10 to 15 fishermen nets approximately 30 kilos of fish a day. Of this a big portion is taken away by a contractor . Contractor Mohmmad Hashim Malah says, "the Sindh government abolished the contract system from the Manchhar for four consecutive years and asked Mohanas to acquire a fishing license. But no one turned up, and so the government this year reintroduced the contract system." The contractor has paid the government Rs 2 million for a year. But the Mohanas speak of 'better days ahead'. Qadir Bux, head of Chandani clan claims that in 1995, the chief minister of Sindh abolished the contract system from Manchhar. "A few days ago a delegation of Mohanas met Federal Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi who promised to abolish the contract system at the lake. Also the newly elected MPA of Manchhar has promised to present the bill of abolishing contract system in the Sindh Assembly soon." In summers the water in the lake, as well as in the surrounding wells, turns acrid. As per the WHO standard, the maximum level of toxins in drinking water is 1500ppm. But according to a study reported in Sindh Education Foundation's bulletin, in 1999, the level of toxic particles in the lake water was 8000 PPM. Some experts hold the fishing techniques of the Mohanas responsible for polluting the lake. The use of DDT powder, the use of some cereals and calcium carbonate mixed with food grains as bait, and the presence of diesel engine boats, have all contributed to render the water unfit fro life. The Mohanas admit that the above mentioned technique to increase the fish catch was in vogue till the fish yield decreased in the late-1990s. They are, however, ignorant of the hazards of oil slippage. Although Pakistan is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention -- an international treaty for the protection of wetlands, mangroves and coral reef, Manchhar has not been included on the list of wetlands that it is obliged to protect from environmental degradation. "The biggest problem of the Manchhar Lake is a chronic paucity of fresh water. The saline effluence finds its way to the lake," says Naseer Memon, an environmentalist who conducted a study on the environmental degradation of the lake some years ago. "Therefore we have to identify the sources that feed the lake. They are clearly marked as MNV Drain, hill torrents and River Indus. What we require is to reverse the equation by halting the march of saline water to the lake by de-linking the MNV Drain from Manchhar, and to increase supply of fresh water by feeding the lake through one of the two sources of fresh water -- hill torrent or River Indus." According to him, it is not an impossible task -- "if the government decides to deal with it on priority basis," he concludes. The number of graves in village Shah Hassan at the western shore of the lake, I was told, has in the last four years increased drastically due to deaths caused by waterborne diseases. Mohanas are all praise for the policemen of Shah Hassan police station, who arrange for the burial rites as the cost is beyond the reach for the family of the deceased soul.

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