Water Crisis in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas

Dipping groundwater levels and the lack of long-term water planning have compounded struggles for people in Pakistan's restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) plagued by years of militancy

Trapped in a cycle of conflict and violence, large parts of Pakistan's restiveFederally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)bordering Afghanistan face an acute water crisis with groundwater levels dipping and little sign of a long term water management plan as the government remains more focused on battling militancy in the region.

Life is tough, say locals in the dry, mountainous region that includes the Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand agencies. And struggling to meet the water requirements for drinking and irrigation has made it even tougher.

Ask Shah Hussain, a farmer in Mohmand Agency's Yakkaghund area, with 12 acres of land. "We depend entirely on canal water for irrigation because of irregular rainfall. Water shortage badly affects the crop," he said. He can manage just 1,200 kg of wheat from his entire land and says this can be doubled if there was enough water.

For Malik Saeed, a resident of Bajaur Agency, who used to grow maize and wheat in his eight acres, life got so tough that he was forced to move to the capital Islamabad five years ago. The shortage of water meant that yield from the land was steadily decreasing. "I decided to leave for Islamabad and stared working as shoe polisher because farming was not anymore profitable business for me," he said.

Though the crisis poses a serious challenge to both the economy and the health of communities, it appears to be a non-issue for the government that is preoccupied with curbing insurgency in these militant stronghold areas.

According to Al-Haj Shahji Gul Afridi, a member of Pakistan'sNational Assemblyfrom Bajaur agency, decades-long militancy — since the USSR war back in the 1980s — has dragged the area into backwardness. "Almost 50% of the FATA population is deprived of adequate and clean drinking water and the situation of irrigation water is even worse," he said. The dry mountainous topography and the absence of long-term water management planning have made life extremely difficult.

In December last year, parliamentarians from the tribal areas submitted a $100 million proposal to the governor of theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa provinceto install a solar based system for 50% of the tube wells to extract groundwater in the entire FATA region. "This proposal will be presented to USAID and other donor agencies for funding," said Afridi.

Shamsul Qamer Mohmand, a journalist from Mohmand agency, argues a solar based system can't ease water shortages. In the three tehsils (administrative sub-divisions) of Mohmand, groundwater is 300-550 feet and dipping every year. There are three to four small dam projects and these are insufficient to cater to the growing demands for drinking and irrigation.

Terrorism and militancy hamper most development work in the area, he said. In one instance, militants attacked an under-construction dam, killed the labourers and ran off with the machinery.

And in Jamrud teshsil of Khyber agency, the water table has also plummeted by almost 300 feet, said Islam Gul, a local farmer and activist. Overuse of water has caused many existing water supply schemes to stop functioning.

Source: The Third Pole

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Taxonomy

• Scarcity
• Water Supply
• Drinking Water