Lyari River ( ur, ) is a small

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

stream that flows through the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

megacity A megacity is a very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. Precise definitions vary: the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its 2018 "World Urbanization Prospects" report counted urban ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

from north east to the center and drains into the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

at the Manora channel. It is one of the two rivers of Karachi, the other one being

Malir River Malir River ( ur, دریائے ملیر) is a seasonal river located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It passes through the city of Karachi from the northeast, through the center, and drains into the Arabian Sea. It is one of the two rivers passing thro ...

. The river is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) long. As a seasonal river it carries the collected water after the rains in the catchment area.S Nazneen and F Begum (1988) Hydrological studies of Lyari River. Pakistan Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 26-29.

History

Until the 1970s, the river held clean water and

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, with farming activities on its banks. However, after the

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

from

British colonialism The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts est ...

in 1947, when Karachi was announced as the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

of the new country, a large influx of refugees from various

Indian states India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

as well as from other

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Pakistan came to live in the city. With rapid growth of the city's

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

, industry, and

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

, the river's

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

was transformed and it gradually continued to discharge

waste water Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industrial ...

, sewage and industrial effluents.

Redevelopments along the river

With many squatter settlements groomed in the river's surroundings, the occasional floods started causing human and property loss. Especially, after the havoc caused by the torrential rains in 1977, need was realised to build

flood barrier A flood barrier, surge barrier or storm surge barrier is a specific type of floodgate, designed to prevent a storm surge or spring tide from flooding the protected area behind the barrier. A surge barrier is almost always part of a larger flood ...

s along the river. In 1986, a proposal was made to build an expressway through the city that would run along the riverbanks of

Lyari Lyari (Urdu: ; sd, لیاري) is a historic locality in Karachi, Pakistan. It is the most densely-populated part of Karachi, and is one of its earliest settled areas.Sarwat Viqar (2014) Constructing Lyari: place, governance and identity in a Kar ...

. The plan was abandoned because an estimated 100,000 people would have to be relocated.Z Mustafa (2006)
"Lyari Expressway: Boon or Bane"
Dawn (newspaper). 8 March 2006. Retrieved on 10 January, 2008 However, the flood incidents continued in the 1990s.

Lyari Expressway

The project comprises a 16.5 kilometre (10¼ mile) stretch of elevated expressway running along both sides of the river, cutting through the city to

Karachi Port The Port of Karachi ( ur, , ''Bandar gāh Karāchī'') is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum) located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is located on the Kar ...

, as an extension/alternative to the Northern Bypass. The work commenced in 2002 without any public consensus, as a result of which large numbers of houses and schools were demolished on the reasons of

Informal settlement Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the info ...

s. The measures were strongly opposed by affected population, community groups,

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s on the grounds that at least 200,000 families would have to be displaced from the development sites in addition to the economic and environmental costs. A number of cost effective alternatives were also proposed by local activists and organizations. However, the project continued with the additions of

Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project (LERP) is a civic project in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan to provide replacement housing in developed suburbs for people displaced by the construction of the Lyari Expressway. Over 250,000 residents of the land n ...

as a relocation plan to move the affected families to the purpose-built areas in Hawk's Bay and

Taiser Town Taiser Town or ''Taiser Town Scheme-45'' ( ur, تیسر ٹاؤن ) is a neighborhood in Malir Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was established by the Malir Development Authority to resettle people displaced due to the construction of the Ly ...

, in the city's suburbs.

Other developments and extensions

Apart from the eviction and resettlement of Lyari Expressway, redevelopment plans have also been carried out under the Lyari River Development Scheme in other towns along the river such as Gulberg,

North Nazimabad North Nazimabad ( ur, نارتھ ناظم آباد) is a suburb of, Karachi, Pakistan. North Nazimabad was developed in the late 1950s as a residential area for the employees of the federal government of Pakistan, and was named after Khawaja Nazim ...

Saddar Saddar ( ur, ), also known as Saddar Bazaar, is a neighbourhood in Karachi, Pakistan. The locality was developed as the primary commercial district during the period of British-era rule in Karachi. As a result, Saddar contains the large concentr ...

, Jamshed,

Gulshan-e-Iqbal Gulshan-e-Iqbal ( ur, ) is a large middle-class to upper middle class (Block 15,16,17,18) residential and commercial neighborhood in the Karachi East district of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was previously administered as part of the Gulshan T ...

and

Liaquatabad Liaquatabad, also known as Laloo Khait or Lalukhet ur, لیاقت آباد), is a neighborhood in Liaquatabad Town, within Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Liaquatabad was named after Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. ...

Pollution

The river is the main contributor to an estimated amount of 200 million

Imperial gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

s (909.218 million

litre The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3 ...

s) of raw sewage that enters the

. The only non-saline input is the local run-off from rainfall. A large number of industries including

leather tanning Tanning is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, makin ...

units,

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable so ...

s, refineries,

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

and

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

works and

thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

s, located along the river, regularly discharge their untreated industrial waste. With the growing amount of organic

nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excre ...

in the river water, the

marine ecology Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and exist in waters that have a high salt content. These systems contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. Marine waters cover more than 70% of the surf ...

along the

coastal shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

has been alarmingly affected. The spillage due to tidal action also continues to affect the

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

along the

. The pollutants along with other environmental perturbations have also proved to be harmful to the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of marine species along

Karachi Fish Harbour Karachi Fish Harbour is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Over 90 percent of the Pakistan's fish and seafood catch and exports pass through the harbour. In 2020, Kemari District was carved out from Karachi West District. So Karachi Fish Harb ...

including

green turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s and

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their ...

s.A Hasan and S I Ahmad (2006)
Some Observations on Birds and Marine Mammals of Karachi Coast
Zoological Survey of Pakistan, 17. pp. 15-20

References

External links

IUCNP
- IUCN's website on environmental issues and Biodiversity of Pakistan
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
on Marine pollution {{coord, 24, 52, N, 66, 58, E, display=title, region:PK_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki Rivers of Karachi