The Indus Delta Between Past and Future: Precarious Livelihoods and Neoliberal Imaginaries in a Parched Coastal Belt

The Indus delta, at the terminus of the Indus river system, is presently home to 300,000 residents. Over the last century, upriver hydrology has reduced the flow of water through the river. The result is salination and seawater incursion that has led to the loss of arable land and with it, agriculture as a sustainable livelihood. This has created precarious livelihoods, as people are forced either into the informal fishing sector, or to migrate; this is a departure from earlier times when agriculture was the primary vocation, and forests covered large swathes of the region. I also discuss future plans for port development in the delta that is constitutive of a neoliberal developmentalist imaginary. This vision, in which a future Pakistan will be connected to markets in Asia through its ports, has been propagated for decades, and most recently as a consequence of China’s ongoing investment regime in Pakistan. In the conclusion, I reflect on the paradox of fixation on fantastical futures while the population is caught up in an uncertain present.

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From the Punjab to Pattala

In the Path of Conquest ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190076689.003.0015 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 234-264

Author(s):

Waldemar Heckel

Keyword(s):

Monsoon Season ◽

River System ◽

Indus River ◽

The World ◽

End Of The World ◽

The Ganges ◽

Direct Attack

The campaign in the Punjab saw Alexander, supported by his Indian ally Taxiles, attack Porus, who lived beyond the Hydaspes River. The battle, at the beginning of the monsoon season, involved a division of the Macedonian forces. One part faced Porus at the river crossing, where the current and the elephants in the Indian army made a direct attack virtually impossible. Alexander took a portion of his army and marched upstream. Once across the river, he drew Porus away from his defensive position and defeated the Indian ruler in a battle fought primarily by cavalry, although the Macedonian pikemen inflicted injuries on the elephants, which became a danger to their own troops. After the Hydaspes victory, Alexander advanced to the Hyphasis (Beas), where the army refused to cross in order to march to the Ganges. The whole episode was contrived, since Alexander clearly had no intention of going farther east. His failure to reach the eastern end of the world was thus attributed to the timidity and war-weariness of his soldiers. During the descent of the Indus river system, Alexander received a near-fatal wound at the hands of the Mallians. Once he recovered, Alexander conducted a series of bloody massacres as he sailed to the mouth of the Indus and accomplished his goal of sailing out into the ocean. Although the Indian campaign was by far the bloodiest of the expedition, there was little long-term gain from the conquest.

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An Assessment of the Pakistan Water Apportionment Accord of 1991

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources8030120 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 120 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Hassan ◽

Burian ◽

Bano ◽

Ahmed ◽

Arfan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Adaptation ◽

Water Security ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Indus Basin ◽

Management Policy ◽

Indus River ◽

Rabi Season ◽

Lower Indus Basin ◽

Indus Delta ◽

Important Field

The Water Apportionment Accord (WAA) of Pakistan was instituted in 1991 to allocate Indus River water among Pakistan’s provinces. This paper assesses the performance of the WAA in terms of the accord’s ability to meet the barrages’ and environmental demands in the Lower Indus Basin. Use of metrics as assessment tools in water security and climate adaptation is an important field, with the potential to inform sustainable management policy. Reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability are used as indicators to define the system’s performance against supply. The results indicate from the pre-Accord period to the post-Accord period, the reliability of Guddu Barrage (the upstream-most barrage in the study) is not changed. However, at Sukkur and Kotri, the most downstream barrage in the study, reliability has significantly decreased. The Results reveal the high vulnerability of the Indus delta in Rabi season when the flows decline and the majority of the water at the Kotri Barrage is diverted.

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Indus River System—Comments

Proceedings of the American Society of International Law at its annual meeting (1921) ◽

10.1017/s0272503700038684 ◽

1960 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 144-150 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

John G. Laylin

Keyword(s):

River System ◽

Indus River

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India, Pakistan and cooperation along the Indus River system

Water Policy ◽

10.2166/wp.2009.010 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Neda A. Zawahri

Keyword(s):

Conflict Resolution ◽

River System ◽

Indus River ◽

Member States ◽

Over 40 Years

Despite receiving accolades for being the example of cooperation, India and Pakistan's peaceful management of their Indus River system remains largely unexamined. Scholars that do consider this case classify it as passive cooperation. To support their classification, they point to the Indus Waters Treaty's allocation of the river system between India and Pakistan and suggest that it severed the interdependent relationship and need to cooperate. Consequently, this paper seeks to demonstrate that India and Pakistan remain interdependent in managing their Indus River system and for over 40 years, they have sustained active cooperation. To account for the maintenance of this cooperation the paper argues that it is necessary to consider the design of the Permanent Indus Commission, an institution established to manage the Indus River. The ability of Indian and Pakistani commissioners to communicate directly and hold regular meetings permitted them to perform the necessary standard and operating procedures for the functioning of the institution. The commission's ability to monitor development of the river system has enabled it to ease member states’ fear of cheating and confirm the accuracy of all exchanged data. Finally, its conflict resolution mechanisms have permitted it to negotiate settlements to disputes as they arise.

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Status of the Indus River dolphin Platanista minor

Oryx ◽

10.1046/j.1365-3008.1998.00016.x ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 35-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Randall R. Reeves ◽

Abdul Aleem Chaudhry

Keyword(s):

Biological Diversity ◽

Industrial Effluent ◽

River System ◽

Agricultural Runoff ◽

Water Levels ◽

Rapid Decline ◽

Indus River ◽

Effective Population ◽

Urban Sewage ◽

The Face

The endemic freshwater dolphins in the Indus River system of Pakistan, Platanista minor, have been considered endangered since the early 1970s. Measures taken to protect them from deliberate capture seem to have stopped a rapid decline, and combined counts in Sindh and Punjab provinces since the early 1980s suggest a total population of at least a few hundred animals. Severe problems remain, however. In addition to the risks inherent to any species with an effective population size in the low hundreds (at most), these dolphins are subject to long-term threats associated with living in an artificially controlled waterway used intensively by humans. Irrigation barrages partition the aggregate population into discrete subpopulations for much of the year. Dolphins that ‘escape’ during the flood season into irrigation canals or into reaches downstream of barrages where winter water levels are low have little chance of survival. A few dolphins probably die each year after being caught in fishing nets. Pollution by untreated urban sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial effluent threatens the health of the entire Indus system. The future of this dolphin species depends on Pakistan's commitment to protecting biological diversity in the face of escalating human demands on dwindling resources.

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Pb isotopic variability in the modern-Pleistocene Indus River system measured by ion microprobe in detrital K-feldspar grains

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta ◽

10.1016/j.gca.2011.05.039 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 75 (17) ◽

pp. 4771-4795 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Anwar Alizai ◽

Peter D. Clift ◽

Liviu Giosan ◽

Sam VanLaningham ◽

Richard Hinton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

River System ◽

Ion Microprobe ◽

Indus River

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A Simple Monthly Runoff Model for Snow Dominated Catchments in Western Himalayas

Hydrology Research ◽

10.2166/nh.1996.0009 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 255-274 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

S. V. N. Rao ◽

K. S. Ramasastri ◽

R. N. P. Singh

Keyword(s):

Snow Water Equivalent ◽

River System ◽

Western Himalayas ◽

Indus River ◽

Monthly Basis ◽

Precipitation Characteristics ◽

Snow Water ◽

Monthly Runoff ◽

Data Constraints ◽

Runoff Model

The rivers originating from middle and greater Himalayas have a significant part of their catchments under permanent snow cover and glaciers. Modeling runoff becomes difficult with almost no data from these parts. Even in the seasonal snow covered zones, the network is generally inadequate. However precipitation characteristics show repetitiveness and snowline movement elevation wise by and large occurs the same pattern each year. The snowline movement is distinct on a monthly basis and the location of permanent snowline is also more or less constant at about 4,500 m. A simple monthly snowmelt runoff model with relatively few parameters is proposed to take advantage of above mentioned characteristics, using the degree day method. The model uses monthly rain, snow (snow water equivalent), mean air temperature and snowline elevation as primary inputs. Model conceptualisation has been made in view of the data constraints. All parameters are estimated through few trial simulations, except the storage coefficient, which is optimised using Rosenbrock technique. The model was applied on two sub-catchments of Chenab basin (of Indus river system) to evaluate the model capability. The results are encouraging. There is further scope for model improvement, generalisation and for application to other catchments in the Western Himalayas.

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Introduction

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190648664.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Haines

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

South Asia ◽

River System ◽

Indus River

This chapter outlines the argument, themes, and structure of the book. It introduces the Indus river system waters dispute, the context of decolonization in South Asia, the role of water in international relations scholarship, and the conceptual frames of territoriality and sovereignty. It also sets out the sources used.

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