IT is a story that, sadly enough, appears in seemingly endless iterations across the country: official neglect and poor planning leading to the degeneration of valuable resources, and the resultant fallout on both the environment and the communities that eke out a living through it. As reported by this newspaper earlier this week, the biodiversity at Keenjhar Lake in lower Sindh has been practically devastated by the unabated discharge over many years of effluent into it from neighbouring industrial areas. Moreover, the creation of an irrigation link canal several years ago, has led to incoming fish seed being diverted away from the lake, while the unchecked spread of the invasive and toxic floating aquatic fern Salvinia molesta, which the locals hold responsible for the low fish stock, has left a skin disease that renders any catch worthless.

As noted, variations of this tale are found across the country; are there any reasons that officialdom through the years should have afforded Keenjhar Lake priority and made hectic efforts to reverse a deplorable situation that has time and again been pointed out by both domestic and international forums? Consider just these few facts: this is the second largest freshwater lake in the country, and a major source of water for Karachi and parts of Thatta district. It is also a wildlife sanctuary and a Ramsar site, which refers to the international treaty by the same name for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands. In a country that is ranked as near ‘water-stressed’ and where it is feared that climate change will result in all sorts of complications, this sort of neglect is nothing short of criminal. Efforts by this newspaper to contact people in official corridors for an answer were met with either silence or the shelving of responsibility. Meanwhile, conditions at the lake itself continue to get worse. What might it take for officialdom to wake up? That, it would appear, is an impossible question to answer.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2015