85% of Karachi’s water supply comes from the River Indus.
If the canal modifications are implemented, the already chronic water shortage in Karachi will worsen.
Karachi receives Indus water through the KB Feeder canal, off-taking from the right bank of Kotri Barrage. Reduced flows mean less dilution of upstream pollutants, making the city vulnerable to contaminated faucet flows that can cause waterborne diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis A and E, and skin infections.
A Supreme Court appointed commission under the Sindh High Court, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, tested 336 water samples, finding that 251 (75 pc %) samples were unfit for human consumption.
The existing water distribution system in Karachi is already plagued with inequalities; a further decrease in water flow means that the elite will find a way to maintain the aesthetic grass of their golf courses but regular population will suffer on all fronts, from the degradation of urban green spaces, parks, and recreational lakes to the exacerbation of Karachi’s urban heat island effect.
Karachi is Pakistan’s economic and industrial hub. Water shortages can disrupt Industrial operations and Service sectors that employ working-class and daily wage earners; hurdles to these operations would threaten these workers’ livelihoods.
The drying of the Indus below Kotri Barrage threatens mangrove forests, which are a natural shield against the increasing frequency of cyclones and rising sea levels.
The shrinking Keenjhar Lake levels endanger aquatic biodiversity and weaken the lake’s role as a freshwater buffer. Greater pressure on over-extracted underground aquifers poses the risk of subsidence, which can damage buildings, roads, pipelines, and other infrastructure, increasing maintenance and disaster risks in cities like Karachi. As freshwater levels drop underground, seawater can seep in to fill the void, leading to saline (salty) water contamination of the aquifers.
The Cholistan Canal project could create a dire circumstance for Karachi’s water supply, which is already at breaking point. We will resist canals on the Indus river and demand better allocation for Karachi and Sindh.