LAHORE:
The last village of floating boats of Pakistan survivors in the stain lake, near Sehwan in Sindh, has been significantly restored in a historical cultural preservation project.
A total of 44 traditional floating houses, known as Galiyo, and smaller fishing boats known as Hurro have been carefully restored as part of a 20 -month initiative led by two academics from the Department of Architecture and Planning of the University of NED.
Currently, around 370 members of the Mohanna community, descendants of two brothers, in these traditional Galiyos.
Financed by the United Kingdom Cultural Protection Fund and implemented in association with the British Council, the project has also given two recently built Galiyo floating houses, Sohni and Laal, to the Mohanna community.
The name of Sindhi’s folklore characters, these floating houses will support the launch of “staining Lake Mohannas Tours”, a tourism initiative led by the community with bird observation, cultural games, local cuisine, patrimonial experiences and other community efforts.
Historically, a few decades ago, hundreds of floating houses floated along the Indo River from southern Punjab to the interior of Sindh. Today, only a few dozen remain mainly due to pollution, environmental changes and devastating impact of the drain drainage of the right bank (RBOD).
The RBOD was designed to transport saline, toxic and wastewater, mainly from irrigation drainage, from the right shore of the Indo river safely to the Arabic sea.
