Water resources are limited and expected to shrink rapidly in coming decades due to climate change. Being located in an arid climatic zone; having an agro-based economy, rapidly increasing population and lack of planning for water resources makes Pakistan’s future bleak when it comes to water availability.

The current water usage in Pakistan is unsustainable since 93% of water resources are allocated to agriculture; 2% to industry and the remaining 5% to domestic use. But there is no planned allocation of water for environmental protection and preservation of ecosystems, habitats, wetlands, and other biodiversity conservation. In this depleting and competing water resources scenario, the ecological health of rivers and deltas would collapse if this current allocation of water persists.

The Indus deltaic area is rich in biodiversity such as riverine and mangrove forests, lakes, birds, mammals, and fish habitats. 1.2 million people depend on these natural resources for their livelihoods. There have been many studies about ecological impact assessments of the Indus Delta that provide consequential analysis of variation in freshwater flow regimes such as drinking water quantity and quality, sediment deposition, impacts of droughts and floods, and aquatic habitat. However, these studies have been limited to few ecological indicators and fail to provide a holistic picture of the Indus Delta ecosystem determined by river flows that can be useful for ecological and hydrological managers.

The reduction of fresh water affects estuarine fishery nurseries, lake habitats, supported agriculture as well as increases erosion in channels and creeks. Variation in river flows, frequency, timing and duration, any type of hydro development upstream and extreme events also impact the ecological conditions of the Indus Delta. Therefore, to determine its ecological status a scoring system for various indicators was adopted¹ that illustrates the Environmental Management Class (EMC) of the Delta. The relevance of each indicator and its estimation was based on extensive literature review and expert opinions.