Impact of reduction in upstream fresh water and sediment discharge in Indus deltaic region
Paper Details
Impact of reduction in upstream fresh water and sediment discharge in Indus deltaic region
Abstract
The Indus river basin stretches from the Himalayan Mountains in the north to the dry alluvial plains of Sindh in the south. The area of Indus basin is 944, 574 sq. km.The development of infrastructure in the basin affected the sediment and water discharge downstream of Kotri Barrage. Prior to the construction of major dams and barrages on the Indus River the recorded average of sediment and water discharge downstream Kotri Barrage was 193 million ton/year and 107 billion m3/year respectively. Reduction in sediment and water discharge is causing coastal erosion in the Indus deltaic and coastal areas and resulting in significantly high levels of sea water turbidity rendering the water quality of coastal waters unsuitable for a number of marine organisms. The turbidities of the seawater influence the bottom limit of light penetration in the sea thus controlling the primary productivity in the coastal and creek waters. The anthropogenic impact of upstream water and sediment blockage has resulted in the shrinkage of active delta and stunted growth of mangrove forest. The beleaguered delta has been forced to face severe problem of coastal erosion due to unplanned coastal development in the area.
Ahmad N. 1993.Water Resources of Pakistan, Lahore.
Asianics Agro-Dev. International (Pvt) Ltd. 2000.Tarbela Dam and related aspects of the Indus River Basin, Pakistan, A WCD case study prepared as an input to the World Commission on Dams, Cape Town.
Bhatti MA. 1999. Water Resource System of Pakistan: Status and Issues. Pakistan Science Foundation, Islamabad, ISBN: 969-8040-14-5, 72 p.
Haq BU. 1999. Past, Present and Future of the Indus Delta. pp. 132-140, In: The Indus River (Biodiversity, Resources, Humankind), Azra Meadows & P. Meadows (Eds.) Oxford University Press, 441 p.
Iftikhar U. 2002. Valuing the economic costs of environmental degradation due to seaintrusion in the Indus Delta, in IUCN, Sea Intrusion in the Coastal and Riverine Tracts of the Indus Delta – A Case Study. IUCN − The World Conservation Union Pakistan Country Office, Karachi.
Kijine JW, Vander Velde EJ Jr. 1992. Irrigation management implications of Indus basin climate change. Case Study, IIMI, Lahore.
Meynell PJ, Qureshi MT. 1993. Sustainable Management of the Mangrove Ecosystem in teh Indus Delta in: Moser, M and Van Vessen, J (eds) Proc. Int. Symp. on wetland and water fowl conservation in south and west Asia. Karachi 22-126 p.
Naini BR, Kolla V. 1982. Acoustic character and thickness of sediments of the Indus Fan and the continental margin of western India. Mar. Geol., 47, 181-195.
Panhwar MH. 1999. Seepage of water of the River Indus and occurrence of fresh ground water in Sindh. pp. 180-197, In: The Indus River (Biodiversity, Resources, Human kind), Azra Meadows & P. Meadows (Eds.) Oxford University Press, 441 p.
Salman A. 2002. Draft Proposal for Economic Valuation of Mangrove Ecosystem in Pakistan, Prepared for South Asia Network for Development and Environmental Economics, Kathmandu.
Shah G. 1998. Sociological Report: Indus Delta Mangrove Ecosystem. DHV Consultants and Sindh Forest Department Coastal Forest Division, Karachi.
UNESCAP. 1996. Coastal Environmental Management Plan for Pakistan, New York.
Warsi M. 1991. Indus and Other River Basin of Pakistan, Stream Flow Records, Case Study Report.WAPDA.
Wells JT, Coleman M. 1984. Deltaic morphology and sedimentology, with special reference to the Indus River Delta. In: Haq, B.U., and J.D. Milliman, (eds.), Marine Geology and Oceanography of Arabian Sea and Coastal Pakistan. Von Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 85-100 p.
World Bank. 1992. Reservoir Maintenance Facilities Project (PCR), Agri. Oper. Div., South Asia Region, Report 10725, 1992.
Mohsin Muzaffar, Asif Inam, Mahmood Hashmi, Khalid Mehmood, Ibrahim Zia, 2017. Impact of reduction in upstream fresh water and sediment discharge in Indus deltaic region. J. Biodiv. Environ. Sci., 10(4), 208-216.
Copyright © 2017 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.