Hope to go Baltistan in summer - any one bee here ?
Footloose, NOS, The News International
What lies beneath
A picture perfect village in Baltistan and the not-so-perfect lives of its people
By Aoun Sahi
To an outsider the people and villages of Gligit and Baltistan depict a picture of centuries old lifestyle. Tibetan style houses attached to each other, surrounded by beautiful apricot and cherry trees mostly built on the bank of some river or close to a waterfall or water spring looks out of this world. In short, it’s a dreamland. The people of the region, though, are very peaceful and tourists-friendly but keep a distance from the tourists. The outsiders are not welcome in their houses and even villages. If anything, this attracts even more attention. During a recent visit to Baltistan, I luckily got a chance to spend a whole day in Ghursey, a Balti village, made possible by a local friend. The revealing visit introduced me to the reality beneath the beauty of this dreamland.
Chursey is some 130 kilometres from Skardu, headquarter of Baltistan. With a population of more than 8,000 people, apricot, wheat, corn and fodder are the major crops cultivated here.
“More than 40 kinds of apricots are grown in Ghursey, and our apricots are considered the best in Baltistan,” says Muhammad Yousuf, 22 years old apricot grower from the village. According to him, most of the people in the village are unable to make ends meet because the agricultural land has been ‘shrinking’ because of the increase in population and the erosion caused by the river each passing year.
“Twenty years ago my family owned 130 kanals of agricultural land in the village which has now shrunk to less than 100 kanals. The rest has been ‘eaten up’ by the river,” he tells TNS. The construction of flood protection dyke has not been completed in the last ten years.
The only other profession of the residents of Ghursey is traditional basket weaving. This craft, like many other in the region, is on the verge of extinction because the next generation is not interested. “This craft needs a lot of hard work. It requires time and energy to learn weaving with little hope of good returns,” says 55 years old famous basket weaver Ibrahim. Basketry has been his family profession since generations but out of his four children, none wishes to continue this profession. "They are not interested to learn this craft because they have been observing me since their childhood, busy making baskets and other things but could never earn enough to give them a good living. " He tells TNS that maximum he earned in a month was Rs6,000.
The locals are dependent on Hushy River for irrigation as well as drinking, cooking and washing. The river’s water carries a lot of silt, sand and mud brought from the mountains of Karakoram Range which act as the major contributing factors in making the land of Ghursey fertile to grow the best apricots in the region. The same water is hazardous for people who are using it for drinking and cooking purposes. This contaminated water is playing havoc with the health of villagers. No wonder, every third villagers suffers from kidney or stomach related problems.
Centuries-old techniques of water purification are still in used here to make it suitable for drinking. While explaining the process, Muhammad Abbas, a 45 year old resident, tells that the river water which they use for drinking purpose is first stored in underground big tanks for more than 12 hours. “We learnt this process from our elders and it helps to separate the sediments from river water.”
When I was drank this greyish ‘filtered’ water I could feel sand and silt going to my stomach. The taste of sand and silt also remained in my mouth for more than 24 hours after drinking it once. “We have to drink this water as there is no other option available to us,” he adds. According to him, the villagers have been demanding the government for years to construct a water filtration plant but “so far there is no response from government’s side and we are facing the consequences of this negligence.”
“More than 50 percent of Ghursey’s population is suffering from different kinds of peptic ulcers because of the river water they use for drinking and cooking,” says Dr Khursheed Hassan Mir, medical officer civil dispensary Ghursey. He is the first qualified doctor to have been appointed in this village in 2006. According to him, there are many other fatal diseases caused by it. “Many of the residents have kidney diseases. The children are the worst effected. Last year, three children of Ghursey died from diarrhoea.”
Interestingly, the number of deaf and mute is alarmingly high in the village. According to Numberdar, Ghulam Muhammad, more than 40 people, majority of whom are adults, of Ghursey are born deaf and mute while a good number of people are suffer from goitre. According to health experts both these diseases are linked to deficiency of iodine. Dr Hassan Mir believes that the geo-chemical composition of soils in this area is poor in iodine and due to low content of this element in water and food products its inflow with the average food ration is insufficient. According to him, iodine deficiency may result in severe abnormalities. “It is a cause of endemic or exophthalmic goitre - swelling of the thyroid gland possibly leading to cancer. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy may lead to stillborn foetus or mentally handicapped children. Abnormal functioning of nervous, cardiovascular system, of gastrointestinal tract, slump in working capacity, oppression of immune system, mental retardation, childbearing pathologies, stunted development are other problems caused by lack of iodine.”
The people in the area started using iodised salt in mid 1990s and that is the reason most of the deaf and mute are adults. Dr. Hassan added “the ratio of these diseases is minimal in the new generation due to the usage of iodised salt.”