Plight of Indus river

The Indus River laments its diminished state, once mighty and life-giving. Dried riverbeds, disappearing wildlife, and polluted groundwater depict its plight. Despite melting glaciers, floods are absent, replaced by drought and intrusion of the ocean. Humans, with their dams and barrages, are blamed for disrupting nature’s eco system.

Indus River: Water Scarcity And The Conflict Between Sindh And Punjab

The basic source of irrigation for Pakistan agriculture is the Indus River. Water resources are becoming shorter due to the irregular flow of water in the Indus River. To overcome the problem of water shortage and to meet the water demands of rising populations, the Punjab and the federal governments are in favor of constructing more dams in order to store the water which is being wasted otherwise. On the contrary, the Sindh holds the point that the construction of dams such as KBD and Bhasha dam would deprived them of their due shares from IBIS. There has been a distrust regarding water sharing between the two provinces.

How Did Ancient Indus Civilization Avoid War for 2,000 Years?

By Annalee Newitz

The Harappan civilization dominated the Indus River valley beginning about five thousand years ago, many of its massive cities sprawling at the edges of rivers that still flow through Pakistan and India today. But its culture remains a mystery. Why did it leave behind no representations of great leaders, nor of warfare?

Archaeologists have long wondered whether the Harappan civilization could actually have thrived for roughly 2,000 years without any major wars or leadership cults. Obviously people had conflicts, sometimes with deadly results — graves reveal ample skull injuries caused by blows to the head. But there is no evidence that any Harappan city was ever burned, besieged by an army, or taken over by force from within. Sifting through the archaeological layers of these cities, scientists find no layers of ash that would suggest the city had been burned down, and no signs of mass destruction. There are no enormous caches of weapons, and not even any art representing warfare.

That would make the Harappan civilization an historical outlier in any era. But it’s especially noteworthy at a time when neighboring civilizations in Mesopotamia were erecting massive war monuments, and using cuneiform writing on clay tablets to chronicle how their leaders slaughtered and enslaved thousands.

What exactly were the Harappans doing instead of focusing their energies on military conquest?

Read more » iO9
http://io9.com/a-civilization-without-war-1595540812?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

The Indus of Pakistan

Courtesy: Vimeo

Anila Sunder performs as Sindhu for Indus River of Sindh

Event organized by Asha Chand of Sindhi Sangat.

Bhasha Dam?

By Prof. Dr. Gul Agha

This is an unmitigated disaster for all. Although they are not likely to get credit at this stage, it is a bad decision which will make it easier for later regimes to do this. Mega-dams are unacceptable. The government is taking a harsh, anti-environmantal action. We must make it clear that we will not accept such an outrageous decisions selling out Indus river and Sindh rights. The Tarbela and Mangla to be dismantled so Indus can flow again.

Nov 13, 2008

Stop Sucking Indus River through illegal canals (leeches)

Harees of Sindh are awakening and fighting for their rights

by: Khalid Hashmani

Newspaper stories indicate that Sindhi Harees have reached the point where they feel that enough is enough. They are fighting back and it may be the beginning of the end of the exploiters who have dug illegal canals (Leeches)/ [Chashma Link canal] and dams to siphon off water from the Indus river before it reaches Sindh. Let us support their cause and join their struggle to bring an end to their plight.

Whole World is involved in a Fraud with Sindh – Death of Indus delta in Pakistan

A once fertile and lush green Indus delta in Sindh Province of Pakistan has shrunk to just 10% of its original area of about six hundred thousand hectares. Construction of barrages and canals over the years and now the change in climatic patterns have rendered it barren.

ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN: Death of a Delta

By Zofeen Ebrahim

Courtesy: IPS

KHARO CHAAN, Sindh, Feb 28, 2009 (IPS) – Sitting on a rickety bench outside the dispensary of Dr. Abdul Jalil at Deh Bublo, Issa Mallah, a centenarian, watches the world go by. He says he comes to this ‘city’ everyday to buy his groceries.

Meet Alice Albinia, author of “Empires of the Indus”

Meet Alice Albinia, author of “Empires of the Indus”, Sun, 2 May , 4 pm, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 South 7th Street, San Jose, CA 95112-3544 Presented by Friends of South Asia, World Sindhi Congress, and Sindhi Association of North America

“Alice Albinia is the most extraordinary traveler of her generation… A journey of astonishing confidence and courage.”—Rory Stewart

One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. It has been worshiped as a god, used as a tool of imperial expansion, and today is the cement of Pakistan’s fractious union.

Alice Albinia follows the river upstream, through two thousand miles of geography and back to a time five thousand years ago when a string of sophisticated cities grew on its banks. “This turbulent history,

entwined with a superlative travel narrative” (The Guardian) leads us from the ruins of elaborate metropolises, to the bitter divisions of today. Like Rory Stewart’s The Places In Between, Empires of the Indus is an engrossing personal journey and a deeply moving portrait of a river and its people.

Quotation of Michael Buckley

“If you want to kill a river, building dams is the best way to do it,” – Canadian documentary maker Michael Buckley.

Save Indus River

Aziz Narejo

Day of Action for Rivers: Support for PFF March in Sindh to Save Indus River

by: Aziz Narejo

International Day of Action for Rivers is being observed the world over this Sunday. An announcement by the organizers (copied below) says: “Under the banner “Our Rivers, Our Rights,” voices around the world defending people, water, and life will be heard this Sunday. If you are participating this year, don’t forget to take photos and send them along to us!”

Will Sindhu River disappear forever from the soil of Sindh??

By Gul Karamchand
…True, the Songs of Rg Veda, the world’s first and foremost literature, echo and re-echo as they sing with ecstasy and delight of Sindhu River Here is one verse out of many: “Sindhu’s roar rises high above the earth, right up to the heavens above. . . Sindhu leads all other rivers just as a warrior-king leads the rest of warriors . . . Rich in fine steeds is Sindhu; Rich in gold; nobly fashioned is Sindhu; rich in ample wealth is Sindhu.

But the Question does arise : Do we know the destiny of Sindhu River? Or to put this question simply: How Long will Sindhu River continue to flow through Sindh? Or, is it fated to disappear in the near future? Will my grand children, and yours, visiting Sindh, be able to view this once- great and majestic river

For the Rg-Vedic poets, the rivers par excellence were the Sindhu and Saraswati which are mentioned repeatedly, respectfully and glowingly in the Vedas. In fact, no other river has been mentioned in Rg Veda as often as Sindhu and Saraswati. The Veda refers to the Ganga (Ganges) only twice, but it makes as many as thirty references to the Sindhu and Saraswati Rivers. The mighty Sindhu (Indus) river symbolizes the power and permanence of the ancient civilization of the subcontinent which evolved over a period of thousands of years. It is the oldest name in Indian history – and in Indian geography. This is the great Sindhu that gave Sindh and Hind — its name. In Ramayana, Sindhu is referred to as “Mahanadi”, which means “the great mighty river”. In Mahabharat, the Sindhu is reverentially mentioned along with other two holy rivers -Saraswati and Ganga.

Save Indus river – with out it Sindh is lost

Following is the portion of Idrees Rajput’s article published in Sindhi Daily Kawish, dated June 26, 2009

The prosperity of Sindh is closely linked with Indus and it is apparently due to this reason, that Sindh is so sensitive, if anyone interferes with the Indus River. Indus water in the body of Sindh is considered as vital as blood is for a human body. So long the Indus was not interferes with, Sindh remained in healthy growth. Unfortunately two thick leeches (Indus links) were stuck very recently to the body of Indus when Sindh was not aware of them. Again the deterioration in the health of Sindh depends upon the sucking programme of these leeches. There is every danger that, if they suck too much, Sindh is liable to be turned in to a desert specially when these links are beyond the boundary of sindh, beyond its control of operation and even observation, very recently when we were short of water, the Taunsa-Panjand link was opened and the water was transferred from the Indus to the Tributary Zone and the water was transferred from the Indus to the Tributary Zone without regard to our historic rights of even basic allocations just to meet certain higher level of uses of the Punjab canals. It is mainly due to this reason that Sindh considers any misdirected or without effective control, operation of Indus links, so hazardous for its very survival.

Struggle for the Restoration of Indus River

New Water Paradigm: required seriousness and Support

by: Jamil Junejo-Hyderabad, Sindh

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum held seminar on topic of “New Water Paradigm and Restoration of Indus River on 29th June on Almanzar,Jamshoro .It is one of the steps of the struggle announced by PFF in a program held in down stream to mark international River day in March 2009 .PFF, unlike the old demand of no new dam on Indus ,made by nationalist political parties , demands new water Paradigm: Decommissioning of existing dams in Pakistan.