Environmentalists say Manchar, a 100 square mile lake, is choking to death due to insufficient fresh water replenishment, increasing salinity and sedimentation.

"The lake has become an agricultural waste dump for those living upstream" in the central Punjab province, said fisherman Ghulam Mustafa Mirani at a dialogue on Manchar Lake at Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy Institute early this month.

"Pollution has drastically reduced the catch, forcing 60,000 fishermen to migrate and millions of migratory birds to desert the lake," Mirani said.

"A decade ago around 2,000 households lived in boats on the lake's shores. Today, only 300 do. A 1000-year relationship between the fishermen and the lake is threatened," he said.

"We are condemned to starvation."

A fellow at the non-government Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) organisation who has done a study on Manchar's degradation, Naseer Memon, said the lake practically looks like a sewer now, whereas in the past it was a major attraction for tourists.

"Until the early 90s, Manchar attracted thousands of tourists who would visit it in winter and camp around it for weeks to take in nature's bounty," Memon said.

"Unfortunately, the place gives a deserted look now."

Manchar is a vast natural depression flanked by hills and the mighty Indus river in the southern Sindh province.

Test reports indicate an alarming rate of salinity build-up, which is a serious threat to the lake's existence. The water contains 12,308 milligrams per liter of TDS (total dissolved solids).

"You have to dilute the lake to wash away the pollution. That is the only solution," said LEAD water expert Javed Afzal.

"Manchar is badly hit by the construction and enlargement of the artificial channels linking the Indus with the lake and the construction of flood embankments to the north," added Memon.

A Sindh Irrigation Department official said the lake was dying due to the shortage of fresh water.

"We used to release water into the lake for its survival but we cannot do so because the Indus River is almost dry. There is no spare water to release into it."

What's left in the vanishing lake is a germ-infected sludge. "The water used to be clean and sweet. We never contracted any water-borne diseases. But now it stinks. Most of our people remain sick," observed Mirani.

Water-borne diseases are endemic, but people must trek to a distant village for medical aid.

Even without the lake's impact on the income of fishermen, the province is faring badly. Sindh Education Department official Akram Jatoi said 50 percent of all men and 90 percent of all women over 15 years are living below the poverty line in the area.

The average household monthly income here ranges between 17 and 50 dollars. A quarter of the men and 85 percent of the women over 15 years are jobless, he said. Three quarters of the boys and 84 percent of girls aged between five and 15 have never seen a school.

But Manchar is not the only lake that is choking. All major wetlands and lakes in Pakistan are turning into cesspools. Many face irreversible damage, and several species of flora and fauna are disappearing from lakes in Punjab, Northwest Frontier Province and the Northern Areas.

Experts say that before embarking upon a high-cost clean-up of Manchar, the authorities should formulate a broad agenda.

"Instead of a piecemeal approach, one has to see the issue collectively. There should be a board of experts to examine how these lakes need to be protected," said LEAD chief Ali Tauqeer Sheikh.

TERRA.WIRE