The ‘Environmental Refugees’ – Environmental degradation, Development and Forced Internal Migration: a case study of Manchar Lake in Sindh

Abstract

This article explores how Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD-I) project degraded the Manchar Lake in Sindh, Pakistan. As the RBOD-I drains the industrial and domestic affluent outflows in Manchar Lake since 1990s, it has diminished the livelihood resources and safe drinking water, forcing the local fishers to migrate to other parts of the country. In this paper, using ethnographic methods – participants observation and semi-structured interviews with the fishers of Manchar Lake, and migrants who have settled at Hussainabad in Hyderabad city, I argue that fishers of Manchar lake are environmental refugees – people who are forced to migrate due to environmental degradation. The results show that the forced migration transforms fishers’ identity, livelihood means, and social and family networks. The paper recommends devising policies that not only cater to their livelihood needs but also help them to return to their traditional lifeways. This would require focussing on restoration of Manchar Lake and making efforts to the return migration of fishers who migrated.