The Edge of Delta: Our Footprint at Present

Published on: February 12, 2026 5:31 AM

“Do you remember your childhood dreams? One of my most vivid was living on a pristine, isolated island, a Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson imagining. Self sufficient, ensconced by sea, sky, sun, trees. Childishly lovely? But in these 64 years of my life on Earth, I-we all have witnessed profound changes. Unpolluted islands existed then, they do not anymore. Except within the ether of the digital realm.

Human actions are causing ever-escalating damage to ecosystems: the 6th mass extinction, higher global temperatures, rising sea levels, changing ocean currents. A new equilibrium in the Earth’s ecologies is forming. Nature’s response to trauma follows a timeline that is much longer than our lifespans, or the time it took to develop our beautiful, and in so many aspects reprehensibly ugly human culture. The era of plenty; The Holocene, has ended. Anthropocene, the age of man, is raging. Perhaps this will be the shortest geologic era. It most certainly will be marked by thin but persistent strata of black, toxic, oily slime, the residue of plastic, petrochemical products and discard. A brand new set of species, perhaps the future form and remnants of our descendants will comment disparagingly about our era. I am stunned that I am a witness to these sad changes. Progress, development over 100 years has undone 10,000 years of plenty, leaving loss, destruction, deprivation. Degradation of human institutions and catastrophic change in the natural world is visible all around us.

I am in a rage.”

(Quoted from: SOLILOQUIES? ON THE SEA- TAQ – CHAMPA Books 2026)

Questions Arise.

The burning question in my mind is: What kind of strata will Karachi’s sea bed keep receiving? I wonder why I wonder about a self-aware species that has the ability to contemplate, and doesn’t seem to care.

The impact of our destructive actions on ecosystems that sustain and support our own present and future seems to elude us. We continue damaging our land, water, air. We continue protecting our constructs by deflecting focus from issues that are the essence of this existential crisis. Often in ignorance but mostly in protecting the artificial fiscal systems that sustain our commerce.

Another smouldering question that arises is: Has human presence been functionally illiterate? Or just literate but unlearned, or simply callous? We are aware of the problem, our scientists have been warning us, throughout my-our lifespans. Perhaps we know the answer. But coming back to the question about the composition of Karachi’s present and future sea bed. What will be seen in our coastal ecosystems in the future? I do have the answer for the next decade. But what will it be like by the time my one year old grandson is my age? For in my 64 years there has been ecological degradation that is shameful to behold.

Has human presence been functionally illiterate? Or just literate but unlearned, or simply callous?

Human consumption is higher than the available resources on Earth. The accumulation of extreme wealth in the smallest group of individuals is unprecedented and the highest in human history. Inequities within societies, communities and individuals is far more extreme than it has ever been. Interspecies respect is nonexistent in the world of business enterprise. The problems are colossal. A reset to our footprint, especially in how we accumulate and define wealth is desperately needed. Solutions are possible. They will need to be incrementally implemented. Choices on the Edge of Delta But do let me bring ourselves back to my microcosm. A place where effective change is very possible. Karachi and its relationship to its shores and sea. I see two scenarios for the future of Karachi’s sea bed

The first and the unfortunately, seemingly probable, is that lip service to environmental issues will continue. The layer of plastic, and deposits of toxic slime will grow thicker. In geological terms its name has been proposed as the Plasticene layer. Species will continue to die out or just move away. Changes in the composition of marine life will continue. Jellyfish blooms in our waters have already become profuse. Phytoplankton will continue to change in composition and quantity, possibly mutate.

Eutrophication due to overdosed nutrient rich waters is already visible in excessive blooms. Bioaccumulation will cause fish and all resident marine life to absorb and retain toxins. Nature will adapt to circumstances and environment. Much is already visible. Even the colour of the beach is changing. The volume of pollutants and deposits are such that this contaminated sand can only be covered up. Sewage treatment plants throughout the Indus River system are desperately required. The second scenario can happen if we as Karachi’s residents stop dumping solid waste and untreated effluent onto the shores and sea. Terrestrial soil, and sand, devoid of industrial and residential waste will start settling on our shallow sea bed. Optimistically, with active and aggressive remediation, we can start to cover the toxic strata we are laying out at present.

I would imagine a decade of persistent effective advocacy and increasing positive remedial action. Followed by another decade or two for the cleaner sediments to build up on the upper surface of the sea bed. This will allow for clearer waters, deeper sunlight penetration, greater oxygen production by phytoplankton and other marine plants. Marine life such as clams and sea bed bacterial and fungal networks would help neutralise some, hopefully many of the toxins pouring out of our city at this point.

Marine life that thrives in cleaner water will return, change will happen. From a human perspective, a positive one. I do hope that my grandchildren and their children will again swim in the estuaries that were last swum in by my fathers friends. The fact that the now incredibly polluted and toxic creeks were once swimmable is true.

What the future will bring depends on HOW we do what we do today.

The writer is an architect as well as an environmentalist