Manchar Lake
The Largest Freshwater Lake In Pakistan, Home To The Mohana Boat Dwelling Fishing Community · Sehwan Sharif, Sindh
Manchar is the largest freshwater lake in Pakistan, a broad, shallow sheet of water west of the Indus near Sehwan, fed by rain and by channels from the river. For centuries it was home to the Mohana, a fishing community who lived their whole lives on wooden houseboats on the lake, fishing, hunting waterbirds and trading by boat. Some still do, and visiting a floating village with them is the reason to come. It is also a sad story. Since the 1990s, saline and polluted drainage water from farms upstream has poured into the lake, killing fish and driving many of the Mohana ashore; bird numbers, once vast in winter, have fallen. In the great floods of 2010 and 2022 the lake swelled and its banks were cut to protect towns, flooding villages. Winter still brings migratory birds, sunsets over the water are beautiful, and the boat people are welcoming. Visitors should come knowing they are seeing an environmental crisis as well as a way of life. It pairs naturally with the shrine at Sehwan.
Manchar Lake, west of Sehwan, Jamshoro and Dadu districts, Sehwan Sharif, Sindh, Pakistan
The lake has no gate or ticket. Boat trips are arranged with local boatmen on the shore, best through a local contact or guide. Manchar is about half an hour from Sehwan and about three hours from Hyderabad. Foreigners in rural Sindh may be given a police escort.