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Sea Level Rise, Persistent Drought Sets off Mass Migration and Famine in Pakistan
Sea Level Rise, Persistent Drought Sets off Mass Migration and Famine in Pakistan
15 January,
2015
Both
surface water and ground water have become unusable, with the once
fertile Indus river basin turning into a desert, as sea water brings
sand inland as far as 50 kilometers.
— World
Bulletin in June of 2014
*
* * *
For
the cities, towns and villages of Sindh Province along the Indus
River in Southeast Pakistan, the seas are rising and the winter rains
have failed. It is a place besieged on all sides by climate change.
By forces that are killing its children due to malnutrition and
turning tens of thousands of its populace into climate change
refugees.
Climate
Change, Loss of Trees, Loss of Children
A
combination of rising temperatures and decimation of local forests
due to gum extraction has exacerbated an extraordinary moisture
deficit for an already arid region. In early spring of 2014, the
impacts to crops resulted in scores of children dying due to
malnutrition. By late fall, the famine had returned with increased
intensity, resulting in the loss of nearly 300 children in less than
three months. A tragic loss that may well have been avoided.
Increased
aridity in the region can be blamed on a number of factors — all
related to human-caused climate change. Gum extraction from Gugral
trees has resulted in losses of up to 70 percent from local stands.
The loss of these tens of thousands of trees has, in turn, resulted
in less water retention kicking off increased aridity. Meanwhile,
larger global climate change is resulting in higher temperatures over
the region — increasing evaporation rates and further lowering soil
moisture content. Finally, the increasing global heat is kicking off
alterations in seasonal rain patterns — making the winter rains
less reliable.
Sea
Level Rise Ruins Coastal Crops, Sets off Mass Migration
The
combined factors would be difficult enough for Sindh and its cities
to manage. But a final factor appears to be delivering another
disruptive coup de grace. As of mid 2014, environmental reports had
indicated a mass migration away from Pakistani coastal regions.
(Not a cloud above the once-fertile but not increasingly salt-ridden Indus Delta on 14 January 2014. Image source: LANCE-MODIS.)
Rising
seas had resulted in increasing levels of salt water in near-coast
aquifers and wetlands. The rising salt levels in soils made
irrigation of coastal crops impossible in many regions. Within just a
few years, the elevated seas had rendered 1 million hectares of land
arid — making it impossible for farmers to grow crops or to raise
animals.
According
to a June 2014 report by World
Bulletin:
Both
surface water and ground water have become unusable, with the once
fertile Indus river basin turning into a desert, as sea water brings
sand inland as far as 50 kilometers.
In
addition, saltwater invasions of the Indus river reduced fish stocks.
This sudden loss of water useful to agriculture and precipitous fall
in fish stocks suddenly put many farmers and fishermen out of work.
By
mid 2014, more than 100,000 people had fled the coast. Now, these
tens of thousands of jobless farmers and fishermen pack the streets
of inland towns — seeking jobs and places to live that simply may
not be available.
But
what this litany of harsh statistics doesn’t tell is how many of
the children lost came from families of those displaced by rising
seas.
Sadly,
this issue of river deltas losing fertility to the inexorably rising
tide is not just a problem for Pakistan. Many of the worlds most
productive agricultural zones lie in delta regions. At this point,
all are under threat due to speeding sea level rise set off by rising
rates of glacial melt. And as we have seen in Brazil, California and
Pakistan this year other increasing atmospheric temperatures, climate
induced weather pattern changes and deforestation (Brazil, Pakistan)
also play a role.
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