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Oxfam in Pakistan - waterlogging and salinity
In the first half of the twentieth century, a massive irrigation
system was built near Pabban Sharif, in Sindh Province. It enabled
people who lived there to grow fruit, sugar cane, and cotton.
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Photo: Liz Clayton/Oxfam |
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But large-scale changes to the environment can cause unexpected
side-effects. In Pabban Sharif, water began to soak into the ground,
so that it became waterlogged. A further problem was ‘salination’,
which means that the water becomes too salty, and poisons the land
and everything trying to grow in it.
Oxfam is helping the local fruit-growers’ organisation to
improve matters. The women now have an area of land planted with
eucalyptus seedlings, which take lots of water from the soil, causing
water levels to fall. The trees grow quickly and the wood can soon
be sold, to earn extra income. Families whose crops have failed
have, with Oxfam’s help, replanted their land with trees such
as guava, and mango, which can tolerate salty water. The poorest
people, who don’t own any land, have been given half-acre plots
of land, on which to grow food to eat and to sell.
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