REPORT ON THE RAMSAR ADVISORY MISSION (# 431) TO THE INDUS DOLPHIN RIVER RAMSAR SITE AND ASSOCIATED FLOODPLAINS 29 October – 5 November, 2012 Report of RAM to the Indus River, Pakistan (RAM 431) | 1 CONTENTS 1. Background 6 a. The Indus River 6 b. Management of the Indus River and its resources 7 c. Flood disaster management in Pakistan 7 d. Rainfall patterns in Pakistan 7 e. Floods along the Indus River 8 f. 2010 Floods 8 g. Background to the Ramsar Advisory Mission 8 2. Floodplains in risk management 10 a. Floodplains and their value 10 b. Management of floodplains 11 3. Lessons learnt from floodplain management along the Yangtze River, P.R. China 12 a. The Yangtze River 12 b. Floods in the Yangtze River 12 c. Floods in the 1990’s 13 d. Lessons learnt from the 1998 Yangtze floods 13 e. Integrated River Basin Management in the Yangtze River 16 f. Local legislation on wetland conservation 17 g. Developing alternative solutions for local development 17 h. Summary 18 4. Results of meetings 21 a. Flood disaster management in Pakistan 21 b. Future management of floods 21 c. Conservation management of Ramsar Sites along the Indus River floodplains 22 d. Conservation management of flooded forests along the Indus River floodplains 23 5. Discussion 24 a. RAM Objective 1: To devise a workable and cost effective strategy for wise-use of the 24 floods b. RAM Objective 2: To make recommendations for alteration in the prevailing flood 27 control strategy so as to obtain maximum benefit from the flood water c. RAM Objective 3: Identification of high priority wetlands/Ramsar Sites for restoration 28 by using the floods as a tool for restoration. 6. Recommendations 29 7. Acknowledgement 31 8. Bibliography 32 2 | Report of RAM to the Indus River, Pakistan (RAM 431) APPENDICES Appendix 1: Itinerary of the RAM 35 Appendix 2: Meeting with Federal Flood Commission (FFC), National Disaster 36 Management Authority (NDMA), and Pakistan Meteorological Department Appendix 3: Meeting with WAPDA 40 Appendix 4: Meeting with Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority 41 (PDMA) Appendix 5: Meeting with Punjab Provincial Wildlife, Forest and Fisheries 42 Departments Appendix 6: Meeting with Punjab Provincial Irrigation Department 44 Appendix 7: Meeting with stakeholders at Lal Suhanra National Park 45 Appendix 8: Meeting with stakeholders at Guddu Barrage 47 Appendix 9: Meeting with stakeholders at Dolphin Information Centre, Sukkur 50 Barrage Appendix 10: De-briefing session with stakeholders 52 Appendix 11: Contact details of attendees 54 Report of RAM to the Indus River, Pakistan (RAM 431) | 3 SUMMARY fter Pakistan suffered one of Guddu and Sukkur Barrages. - The coordinating body should be its most disastrous floods in The visit highlighted the fact that tasked with drafting and regularly A2010, the Ministry of Climate the Indus River is truly the lifeblood updating an ‘Integrated Indus Change requested the Secretariat of for Pakistan, flowing through River Basin Plan’ to coordinate up- the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands the country to provide water and stream land-uses with the needs of to organize an expert team under nutrients for agriculture, as well down-stream users, which can also the Convention’s Ramsar Advisory as food, energy and livelihood for maintain the social, economic and Mission (RAM) mechanism, to people across the country, from environmental benefits, including visit the wetlands along the Indus the high mountains to the Arabian flood mitigation, that the river River floodplains and to a), devise Sea. However, there is a lack of provides through maintaining a workable and cost effective an integrated basin approach to environmental flows; strategy for wise-use of the floods the management of the river to b), to make recommendations maintain the many services and - The government should move for alteration in the prevailing benefits that the river provides away from the paradigm of solely flood control strategy so as to for people and the environment. using a hard-engineering (or obtain maximum benefit from the Instead, management is conducted structural) approach to controlling flood water and c), identify high by various agencies, both national flood and instead, should take an priority wetlands/Ramsar Sites for and provincial, with insufficient integrated approach and consider restoration by using the floods as a coordination between them, such as including soft-engineering (non- tool for restoration. managing the river to minimize the structural) approaches. This would The Mission was composed of a impact from the annual floods. include managing floodplains and team of four international and The overall recommendations from using, or restoring the lakes and national wetland experts and was the RAM are as follows: ponds for flood water storage, and conducted from 29th October to 5th - A broad-based coordinating the replanting of riverine forests November 2012. Some 10 meetings authority should be established for to slow the speed of the flood were held with various government the sustainable management of the waters. There is a need to take the agencies and visits were made to Indus River Basin in Pakistan and traditional approach of looking at a number of sites along the Indus its resources, e.g. water, fisheries, the annual floods as blessings and River floodplains, particularly Lal biodiversity, as well as for pollution to maximise the benefits we can Suhanra National Park, as well as control and flood management; obtain from them. 4 | Report of RAM to the Indus River, Pakistan (RAM 431) - Over the past decades, the - Trials should be conducted on alternative livelihood methods which are construction of upstream dams and adapted to the annual floods for the local communities living in the Indus other water control structures have floodplain; restoration and management of ponds and lakes for flood reduced the amount of freshwater water storage; develop opportunities for biodiversity conservation (e.g. and silt reaching the Arabian Sea. restoration of riverine forests and provisions of habitat for waterbirds) as This has had a range of impacts well as for education and public awareness; on the livelihood of the people and the environment in the Indus - Along with managing the flood plains there is an urgent need to manage River delta. In managing the Indus the hill torrents that contribute to enhancing the vulnerability in the flood River, such as for irrigation and for plains; floods, we also need to ensure the environmental flows in the river so - To follow-up from the RAM, it is recommended that a group of key that downstream users can continue officials and stakeholders responsible for flood management in Pakistan as to benefit from the services that the well as being involved in the pilot projects, undertake a study tour to China river provides. to see at first-hand the steps that China has taken to use an integrated approach to flood management and restoring environment flows in the - A number of sites along the Indus Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. River were identified as being suitable for further investigation for conducting pilot projects on the restoration and management of floodplains for flood management as well as for the improving the livelihood of the local communities. These sites include the ponds by Taunsa Barrage Ramsar Site, as well as sites in the Indus Dolphin Ramsar Site and at Lal Suhanra National Park; - The management plans that are being developed for the Ramsar Sites along the Indus River floodplain, e.g. Taunsa Barrage, should also discuss and provide recommendations on the management of the site for flood management; - Activities under the pilot project would include the removal of illegal structures and encroachments into the sites which otherwise would obstruct the flow of water and impact on the capacity of the site to hold flood water; - To control encroachment of the flood plains by illegal settlements and illegal structures in general, the staff of the Irrigation Department should be empowered and strengthened by facilitating them to enforce the Canal and Drainage Act (1873); Report of RAM to the Indus River, Pakistan (RAM 431) | 5 REPORT OF RAMSAR ADVISORY MISSION TO THE INDUS RIVER, PAKISTAN 29 OCTOBER TO 5 NOVEMBER 2012 1. Background the summer monsoon rains. The ponds and irrigation canals have rains fall from July to September in been constructed by people from 1.1 The Indus River the upper reaches of the basin in the earliest civilizations to the The Indus River lies within one Pakistan and causes peak flows in modern day (FAO undated). Today, of the major river basins of the the river to occur at that time. some 70% of the water from the world, with a total drainage area of over 1,165,000 km2, a length of The Indus River is some 3,180 km and covering four the ‘lifeblood’ for countries, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan’s population India and Pakistan. It begins of nearly 180 million in the Tibetan plateau close to people, as well Lake Mansarovar, before flowing as being critical northwest to the Ladakh region, for maintaining a Gilgit and Baltistan, and then healthy environment. turning southwards along the entire Communities from the length of Pakistan to enter the remote mountain areas Arabian Sea (Fig. 1). In Pakistan, to the fertile plains the Indus River Basin covers about and the urbanized 75% of the land area and supports delta areas, are all some 95% of the population (Akhtar dependent on the river 2011). in one way or another, e.g. for providing The river has an annual flow of food, water for about 272 billion cubic yards (207 irrigation, hydropower, billion cubic metres). Some of this industry, transport and water comes from the melting household use. Indus River is used for irrigation.