http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review5.htm
By M. Sadaqat
The unjust division of water after the construction of the Khanpur dam, has left farmers in utter despair reports M. Sadaqat.
The people of Haripur have yet to recover from the traumatic experience of the mass exodus of over 100,000 inhabitants who were uprooted from about 300 villages, to make way for the country’s major power project, the Tarbela dam. Over 5,000 more villagers of old Khanpur - once famous for its citrus orchards - were asked to leave their land and homes for another ambitious project in early 1976.
This rain-fed Khnapur dam was initially meant to supply municipal water to the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Conceived in the late sixties and completed in June 1983 on the Harro river, that originates from small hilly springs and seasonal subsidiaries of upper Hazara, the idea of the dam is seen by the victims as the result of a lopsided policy of a powerful pro-Punjab bureaucracy. A conventional nexus between the bureaucracy and feudal lords was reached that suited the interests of the Rajgans of Khanpur who secured a considerable share of their two Punjkatha (a cluster of 20 villages irrigated by five outlets) specific water channels from the left bank canal of the Khanpur reservoir.
These two outlets irrigate a vast area of Panjkatha, where about 70 per cent of land is owned by the families of the former NWFP Chief Minister, Raja Sikandar Zaman, former federal minister Gohar Ayub and former MNA Nawabzada Salah-ud-Din Saeed. According to Raja Sikandar Zaman the right of the farmers of Panjkatha on the reservoir’s water was also guaranteed under the Rawaj-e-Abpashi of 1905 and subsequently by the Ecnec before the commissioning of the dam.
Despite having been displaced from the land they were living in for decades, and compensated nominally for the material loss they suffered for theconstruction of un-cemented houses on the land actually owned by the Rajgans, the agrarian community of Khanpur appeared to be least concerned by the sacrifice made for the project. With water in abundance, the agricultural as well as horticultural activities were in full swing with the desired crop and fruit yield involving hundreds of unskilled manpower.
At the initial stages of the Khanpur dam project, the residents of the area expressed their fears of being denied their share but the authorities drove their fears away by promising a guaranteed share. Only the surplus water wouldl be channelized towards the twin cities. The poor victims were duped in the name of national interest and their own well being and were assured several times by the managers of the project executing agency WAPDA and other government functionaries of their share.
During the construction of the dam funded by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan that disbursed Rs 2,595 million for the project, the people of Khanpur hardly experienced any scarcity of water. They were, however, left high and dry once the water started being supplied to the CDA, leaving the small landholders of Panjkatha in the lurch.The agriculture and horticulture system of the entire area, once known as the fruit basket of the Frontier province, faced an ecological catastrophe .
Who is to blame for the loss: theexperts of the executing agency or the meteorologists who failed to keep in consideration low rainfall or unfavourable weather conditions in the days to come?As a result, farmers of many villages resorted to massive deforestation of their orchards of citrus and other fruit bearing trees while the other disillusioned souls deprived of irrigation water are contemplating to follow suit.
The annual yield of orange, lychee and vegetables, once grown in tonnes and exported to other cities from these areas, has been abruptly reduced to 30 per cent asdue to lack of water. According to official estimates, the area covered by citrus orchards in Panjkatha is 250 hectares where there was an average yield of 2,500 tonnes of citrus fruits of different species, mainly orange. The same has also happened to other fruits grown such as lychees, loquat, guava and vegetables.
The growing trend of forced deforestation by the dejected farmers has not only put the eco-system of the area in jeopardy but has also increased unemployement. According to an estimate, over 60 per cent of the orange, loquat and other fruit orchards have been cut down from the 21 villages of the Panjkatha where hundreds of people used to work. “Where should we take our children now that we have lost our only source of livelihood?” asked farmer Malik Mumtaz.
They are also denied job opportunities at the nearby Hattar Industrial Estate. Those who manage to get jobs on the basis of sifarish are paid a pittance of Rs 2,000 at month which is hardly enough to make ends meet. Mumtaz further told The Review that he grew his orange orchard of five acres which has now dried because of scarcity of water. He used to earn between Rs 100,000 to 150,000 from the orange yield but now feeds his family from theRs 100 a day that he now earns as labourer.
Another villager, Khyzar Hayat, shared the same view and said that he was considering getting rid of the withering fruit-bearing trees. “They have taken away our share of water for their gardens, snatching away our source of earning. They wouldn’t hesitate shooting us if they wanted to,” said Tahir Mehmood, another angry villager.
Sajid Shah, Nazim union council, Tofkian, said that 90 per cent of the orchards of his area have been wiped out and as people are unemployed, crime rate of once a peaceful area, had risen.
Raja Sikandar Zaman, the biggest land holder of the area, criticized the authorities’ high-handedness in givingpreference to the CDA for their industrial need over agrcultural demand. He termed it a violation of Rawaj-e-Abpashi contract of 1905 and Ecnec’s decision of 1991 which, according to him, "held out assurance of unlimited right on the dam’s water for the people of Panjkatha. He informed The Review that as per agreement they require at least one cusec for every 50 acres, but are being supplied much less than their fixed share.
His son, Dr Raja Aamir Zaman, district nazim Haripur, also demanded suspension of water to the twin cities and protested that depriving the people of Khanpur of their right to the water is a sheer violation of Article 161 of the Constitution.
Statistics pertaining to the total release of irrigation water to the Panjkatha area from the Khanpur reservoir, collected from the official sources, reveals that only the feudal class gets a maximum amount of water supplied from the water channels totheir orchards and land which, luckily enough, come first in line. Further, an official report from the Irrigation department sent to the Ecnec also shows that the poor farmers of the tail end of the villages of Tofkian, Mirpur, Jandial, Garhi Syedan and others are more affected than others. The report recommended five cusecs of extra water for the drought-hit areas at the tail end of Panjkathat channel.
It suggested that as the water released from Panjkatha channel covers a distance of about 20,000 feetbetween Tofkian and Jandial villages before reaching at the tail end, a 5,500 feet of link channel of steel pip measuring 15 inch in diameter, could save the orchards and fertile land of over 800 acres, from ruin. The cost of this auxiliary channel project was estimated to be Rs 3.8m. It was reported that these recommendations were forwarded to the Ecnec for approval. When contacted, the dam administration maintained that the continuing dry weather was responsible for the shortage of water and dispelled the notion that water was held back deliberately by the authorities.
Since the reservoir is fully dependent on rain water from its catchment areas of upper Hazara, unchecked deforestation in the hilly areas, which brings sedimentation in the reservoir besides continuing seepage, is destroying the storage capacity of the dam.
Some experts believe that if the present weather conditions continued to be unfavourable, coupled with uncontrolled sedimentation and seepage, which reportedly wastes 40 to 50 cusecs daily from the reservoir, it could become a mere pond in the near future. Besides, many have been left jobless as a consquence, revealing the gravity of the situation, and calls for quick remedial measures before it is too late.
Khanpur’s rare citrus fruit species has been famous for its unique taste. In a drought situation, the normal yield from a full- grown orange tree for fallen to 400 oranges. The low rainfall and non-availability of irrigation water has also put the horticulture system of Khanpur at stake. Among theseveral species of citrus fruits grown in this area are fruiter, sacreen, mosami, kaghzi blood, ruby blood, and red blood. Sangtara and grapefruit are grown but to a lesser extent.