Pakistani Coastal Villages Retreating Inland As Oceans Rise, Delta Shrinks
KETI BUNDER, Pakistan, Jan 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For fisherman Sammar Dablo, it was as if "the seawater stole our homes" when land erosion forced his village to relocate further inland on Pakistan's south coast.
The people of the fan-shaped Indus Delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea, are among the poorest of the poor, mostly illiterate and living in wooden shacks on the mud flats. As seawater has washed into the delta, destroying thousands of hectares of fertile land and contaminating underground water channels, they survive by fishing in the saltwater creeks where dolphins are a common sight.
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Climate change is clearly increasing vulnerabilities in the delta area. Sea-level rise is contributing to higher storm surges, erosion, flooding and salinity, according to WWF-Pakistan. A 2012 study from the environmental group, which has worked with delta communities for over a decade, analysed land loss and gain by comparing satellite images from 1962 and 2011.
"The results revealed an erosion of approximately 9,065 ha of land in Keti Bunder and Kharo Chann, whereas only 1,347 ha of land have been accreted along the shoreline," it concluded. Coastal areas are also being hit hard by powerful storms. In 2014, for example, Cyclone Nanuk caused major property damage as homes in the Indus Delta were submerged for days.
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http://www.trust.org/item/20150109100433-f25y9/?source=shtwv
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