Seawater intrusion and the permanent displacement of villagers in Pakistan’s Indus Delta

PAK-SI-1001

Seawater intrusion and displacement in Abdullah Mirbahar Village, Kharo Chan in Pakistan

Pakistan

Sindh

Thatta / Sujawal (Indus Delta region)

Abdullah Mirbahar village – Kharo Chan Tehsil, Indus River Delta (coastal region)

2000s (escalating); intensifies through 2023‑25

Ongoing

Abdullah Mirbahar, a small village in Kharo Chan Tehsil of the Indus River Delta in Sindh, Pakistan, has undergone permanent displacement as a direct consequence of climate-driven environmental degradation. Historically, the village depended on fishing and agriculture, which sustained the local economy and social structure. Over the past decades, seawater from the Arabian Sea intruded inland. This has led to a progressive increase in soil and groundwater salinity, making crop cultivation and aquaculture — once the backbone of livelihoods — largely impossible. By 2025, only four of the original 150 households remain, indicating near-total abandonment of the settlement (Economic Times, 2025, HICGI News, 2025).

Declining freshwater flow has removed the natural buffer against seawater intrusion, while rising soil salinity — estimated to have increased by 70 per cent since 1990 — has destroyed traditional farmland. Fisheries have collapsed as hypersaline waters decimated shrimp, crab, and fish populations. The combination of land submergence and ecological degradation has rendered the village uninhabitable; remaining houses stand empty, illustrating the irreversible nature of the displacement (Malay Mail, 2025).

The displacement process has been gradual but cumulative, intensifying between 2023 and 2025. Approximately 140–146 households, representing roughly 700-800 individuals, have migrated permanently. Migration primarily follows a rural-to-urban trajectory, with most families relocating to Karachi and surrounding towns. Distances vary from 15 kilometers to nearby settlements to over 400 kilometers for those reaching major urban centers. The loss of fishing and farming livelihoods has forced many households to depend on informal urban labor, while social networks and cultural cohesion in the village have largely dissolved.

Primary Climate Hazard Displacement

Direct

Climate

Multi-hazard

Sudden

Salinity

Temperature Rise / Heat

Yes

Indus River Delta Coastal Belt

430

146

Forced

400

permanent

Rural-to-urban migration

1

mixed

Yes

mixed

Small-scale business / trade, Daily wage labor, Industrial / mining work

Subsistence farming, Fishing or aquaculture

Loss of fish stocks and farm land, forcing people to migrate for work; cultural collapse.

limited

Government & UN launched ‘Living Indus Initiative’ to restore delta but displacement continues significantly.

partial

Partial ecological projects; human relocation not fully structured.

No

No

No

No

Attempts at delta restoration exist alongside coastal defense, but largely ineffective to halt permanent relocation.

Non-governmental organisation, Media

Indus water drying, 12 lakh displaced; villages abandoned in Indus Delta

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/indus-water-drying-12-lakh-people-moved-out-pakistans-river-dependent-region-faces-existential-crisis/articleshow/123135547.cms

Water has surrounded us: Slow disappearance of the Indus Delta (Abdullah Mirbahar eyewitness)

https://hicginewsagency.com/2025/08/05/water-has-surrounded-us-the-slow-disappearance-of-pakistans-indus-delta/

High