The Indus River: from the Past to the Present

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The Indus river flows and start from the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayan mountains and a winding curve through the productive lands in the southern plains. Delta river boundary is one of the largest cross boundary rivers in the world with a hydrographic area of about 1km2. Pakistan, India, China, Afghanistan are four countries linked with Indus river delta (IRB). However, the part of Indus river delta present or flow about 61% in Pakistan, 29% in India and approximately 8% in China and Afghanistan. About 300 million people’s lives depends on Indus river. In such group of people, 61% living in Pakistan, 35% in India, 4% in Afghanistan and China living on the river edge. These countries IRB (Institutional Review Board) as the source of water and sustainable development of this region.

Glaciated mountain valleys with monsoon plains and a deltaic coastline are linked with hydrological process in the Indus river. Each of which has extensive water management regimes. Moreover, the Indus is a basin of major international purposes, improvement of our environment, socioeconomic and political issues throughout the region. The Indus water resources sustainability faces many critical water-related issues, such as rising population, degradation of ecosystem services.

Indus river is the back bone of agriculture sector. Irrigation uses 96% of the diverted water resources and a great benefit for economics and prosperity for country. Sometimes floods can create economic damage such as in 2010 flood caused an approximately US$10 billion of economic damage. In the middle of 18th century Indus river has been regulated and man-made structures such as reservoirs that were constructed on the main river.

Many barrages, canals and dams were built India and Pakistan in 1960 after the adoption of the famous Indus water treaty and use of river water between two countries. Indus river is produced from snow and ice melt and improve feature water resources under the control of climate change. The average mass loss of the glaciers in Indus river was approximately 0.2m w. e a-1 during the past decades. In future glaciers changes average ice loss of about 50% by 2100.After the middle of this century glacier melting will probably decrease.

Indus Civilization

The distribution which take place in 1921 at Harappa small town in Punjab and in 1922 at Mohenjo-Daro in Sind, evolved urban culture nearly two thousand years older than any previously recognized in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Through this distribution the culture was developed called Indus Valley Civilization.

About now days we know Harappa Culture which was itself represents of a highly evolved Urban system and economy in other words of a civilization. During the past thirty years, through Indus system Himalayas and the sea are recognized and the Gabber is former parallel system and now divides the Jumna-Ganges country.

Over seventy sites have produced Harappa culture along the Indus axis at the foot of Shimla hills near the coast of the Arabian Sea 300 miles Karachi west. They are towns or villages of the plains with rare exceptions. The hills include village cultures, most of lines present of the Indus and other rivers which flow south-westwards from such region about Ambala and Sarasvati formerly watered the deserts of Rajasthan and Bahawalpur may have struggled through as arrival Indus.

The people who lives on the edge of the Indus river delta passed comfortable life and get more sources of the nature as compare to the people who lives in the desert area. They caught fishes and sale in the market and return of this they get money and meet expenses of their lives and earn a comfortable life. Sometime floods came and such people lost their lives, but they enjoy every source of nature.

Hill divided village diversity groups is in standing contrast to the widespread uniformity of the riverine civilization. But this is not all, Indus civilization far down the west coast giving the people who lives on Indus river in the aggregate no less than 800 miles of Seaboard, with what bearing upon their maritime activities.

Until 1958 it was assumed that the Indus civilization has failed between Indus and Jumna System for cross dividing. Today much of the Indus valley have mixed scene of hard-won agriculture and wide expanses of desert or semi desert, with spars bushy trees. North of Quetta material some rising to height adopt as Zhob culture from the Zhob river which flow towards the Indus plain and is roughly axial to them.

Climate Change and Migration

Migration flows increased with climate change that is a growing awareness in international policy circles. In addition to political refugees and economic migrants, climate will be change and migrates and humans also migrates. A climate change induced migration that is a phenomenon and there is policy established how to deal and address the needs and rights of environmental migrants. International decision making on climate change consider these new emerging issues.

Bangladesh is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on Himalayan glacier melting, in this region the rivers that enters and flows glaciers melt and water falling in these rivers and due to this climate will be changed. Secondly rivers sea level rice and climate change induced and different weathers take place under current conditions. It is estimated that by 2050, 150 million people could be displaced by climate change related phenomenon like increasing water security, floods and storms, etc.

Human migration has multiple causes of which environmental factors are just one. United Nations University and other shows by their research that various factors play a role in households to migrate including:

Profession (mainly farmers and cattle herders);
Attachment (land ownership, family, history);
Cultural issues (e.g. language);
Financial means;
Alternative livelihood in other villages/regions;
Pull factors in villages/regions/countries of destination (Afifi, 2011).

For country of origin factors due to which people migrates including political instability and conflict, lack of economic opportunities and lack of access to resources. For country of destination factors due to which people migrate including the availability of employment and demand for workers, higher wages, political stability or access to resources. Factors that facilitate or restrict migration including ease of transportation, family or social networks, government immigration or immigration policies and economic ties such as trade.

Indus Water Treaty

Indus Water Treaty signed on September 19, 1960 between India and Pakistan by the World Bank. The treaty fixed and delimited the rights and obligations of both countries concerning the use of the waters of the Indus River System.

The Indus river rises in the southwestern and flows through the disputed Kashmir region after this enter in Pakistan drain into the Arabian sea. The Indus river system has been used for irrigation since time immemorial. About 1850 modern irrigation engineering started work. British rule in India, large canal system also was constructed during this period.

British India in 1947 was partitioned response in the creation of west Pakistan and an independent India. After a short time, an agreement standstill in1947, on April 1,1948, India began with holding water from canals that flow in Pakistan.

In May 4,1948 through Inter Dominion Accord, India provide water to Pakistani parts of the basin in return for annual payment. This continue further talk to take place in hopes of reaching a permanent solution.

In 1951 David Lilienthal former head and US Atomic Energy Commission, visited this area to find out researching article and after few years he was write Colliers magazine. He suggested that there is possibility to take advise from World Bank to developed and improve Indus River System with the help of combination of two countries Pakistan and India. This agreement was accepted the Eugene Black who was the president of World Bank. All engineers continue work for this process. Political considerations do technical discussion of arrival this agreement. World Bank submitted a purposel for a solution in 1954.Indian Prime minister and Pakistani President signed the Indus Water Treaty after six years of talks in September 1960.

The Indus, Jhelum and Chenab to Pakistan and other eastern rivers the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej to India are western rivers which Treaty gave the waters. It provides for the funding and building of Dams notably the Tarbela Dam on the Indus River and Mangla Dam on the Jhelum River.

In 2017 India completing the building of the Keshanganga Dam in Kashmir and continued work on Ratle Hydroelectric power station on the Chenab river despite Pakistan objection with the World bank on whether the designs the terms of Treaty.

Degradation

As the release of river water towards the sea remains, the World’s Bank report titled Pakistan getting more from water has estimated the cost of degradation of the Indus Delta at over $2 billion per year. The noted that Indus Delta being the fifth largest in the world having rich biodiversity and valuable ecosystem services and protection of mangroves forests. However, reduce river flows, sea level rise are driving multifaceted environmental crisis for the delta including sea water intrusion, soil salinity, mangrove forest lost and depleted fisheries.

The delta does not receive freshwater for 138 days each year because the flows downstream of the Kotri Barrage have been limited to August and September. Delta penetrate for hundreds of kilometers during large part of the year according to allow situation.

The much of Sindh’s underground water is saline and not useful for agricultural resources. The causes of salinity are both natural as well as poor irrigation management. Water leaks from canals enter into the groundwater and excess water cause field flow of drains. Arsenic which have high concentration in groundwater is widespread which id primarily geogenic in origin. Its prolonged exposure can cause skin lesions, cancer and other diseases. The number of people drinking arsenic contaminated water has not been verified.

Industrial effluent are widely polluting freshwater ecosystems and nutrients from fertilizers in agricultural drainage, untreated municipal wastewater across Pakistan. Eutrophication leads to uncontrolled growth of algae and depleted oxygen levels in the water, killing fish and causing a major decline in biodiversity. Piped urban water supplies are not reliable. Only 27% of the house holds receive water for more than six hours per day.

The water supply is higher in Punjab as compare to Sindh. Over 1000 children died and 22000 were hospitalized with drought related disease in the Tharparkar district during the year 2014 to 2017.In search of labour and grazing land for livestock between 35% and 45% of Tharparkar families migrated. The number of men were large as compare to women for searching food and livestock. Heat stress appears to be a stronger predictor of migration in rural Pakistan than rainfall shocks.

Irrigation service delivery as poor and less productive and the efficiency of water distribution very low and water delivery across the command areas inequitable. The causes of lower economic include water losses, water logging and drainage, etc.

Indus Sedimentary System

Now a days the supply of sediment from the Arabian sea to the estuary of the Indus river is apparently more pronounced than the sediment supplied by the river to the sea. The research presented steady of fine-grained sediments of the Indus river, Indus canyon, pelagic/hemipelagic and Indus shelf/slope and the contributes units of the Indus Fan. The material presented herein proposes the source, dispersal patterns and mode of transportation of fine-grained sediments in the fluvial, littoral and deep-sea environments. The first dispersal pattern originates from the Indus river mouth and flows roughly parallel to the coast. A second transport pathway appears to flow the canyon axis. In first wind-induced current move the sediments to the southeast or northwest depending upon the prevailing monsoon. At present, little or no transportation is in progress the canyon because the movement is alongshore with the current pattern and deposition of the fluvial mud is largely confined to the delta area. The pelagic/hemipelagic facies covers a large area on the fan as only a small portion of the fan was subjected to terrigenous derived sedimentation because of the sea level stand during the Holocene. The terrigenous sediments are trapped with the Indus delta and thus the fan became the site of predominantly pelagic/hemipelagic sedimentation. The draping of foraminiferal-nannoplankton ooze over the entire channel system. Beside indicating increase surface water productivity, the pelagic interval may also indicate decreased clastic influx.

Conclusion

The Indus River start from Hindu Kush, Karakorum and Himalayan mountains and flows in China, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan and provide water in such area people. The part of it 61% in Pakistan, 29% in India, 8% in China and Afghanistan. 300 billion people depends on Indus river of which 61%, 35%,4% in Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan. When sea level rises the climate of Indus River Delta also change and remain present and again change with the passage of time. Due to the lack of water people migrate to other areas for livelihood and livestock. There was a great issue of water between India and Pakistan from the early days. Trying to many times for solution this matter with the help of world bank. The Indus River Delta is home for many birds and dolphins as well as mangroves trees. The number of men is greater than women who migrate to other areas. The people who live on the edge of Indus River Delta, sometimes drink polluted water of sediments and suffering from many diseases. When floods came many people lost their lives but sometimes floods giving them good news like flood which came in 2010 in Pakistan.

Reference

Van der Valk, M.R & Keenan, P. (2011). Climate change, water stress, conflict and migration: Climate change and migration. Netherland, IHP.
Inam, A. (1997) Temporal and contemporary fine-grained sedimentation across the Indus sedimentary system in United Kingdom (Published doctoral dissertation). University of wales Swansea, Singleton Park, United Kingdom.
Ali, Z. (2019, Feb 9). Degradation of Indus Delta. Retrieved from https ://tribune.com.pk/story/1906500/1-degradation-indus-delta-costs-2b-year-world-bank/
Pincott, J. (2012). The Indus flood plains and Indus Civilization. Indus Civilization, 19(1-2),15-26

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