Muhammad Waseem
PESHAWAR: The population of Lower Dir District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has split within a decade. In last few years hundreds of people living in the area migrated to other districts. The main cause? Water shortages due to springs dying.
“Our life is very hard and harsh without water. If the situation remains the same for a year we also thinking to migrate the other areas,” said Saad Ullah Khan a resident of Umar Kot village in Lower Dir.
Khan shared that once the orange of Khall and Rabat were famous all over the country but now everything vanished after springs dried up here.
Lower Dir, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has an area of 1,583 square kilometers and is 245 kilometers from the capital Islamabad.
According to Khan, there had been numerous springs/wells, and natural fountains in his village.
“We used to pump water from the springs for our daily life use and agriculture and now we have no single spring left in an entire village. We even now buy water tanker for our daily use which cost 1200 Rs per Tanker and our agriculture is laid upon on the mercy of Allah”, said Saad Ullah
Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Lower Dir Malak Shafi Ullah Khan said that water for every home was his election slogan in the general election 2018. He said that the shortage of water is one of the challenging issues of KP government. The MPA further mentioned that Gopalum Irrigation scheme which was decided to be launched a decade ago.
The Gopalum Irrigation scheme is an initiative approved by the recent government to provide water for agriculture and to raise the water level in lower Dir.
KP irrigation departments planning officer Nadir Khan said the Gopalum scheme was delayed because it needs funds for which the department couldn’t find any donor.
Saad Ullah Khan said that the eucalyptus tree has dried our springs because there are lots of eucalyptus trees around the mountains in his village and surrounding areas.
The forest expert and research co-coordinator at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Peshawar Dr. Kamran Hussain denied the claim and explained that up to some extent eucalyptus is responsible for the dry conditions but still it is not the lone reason behind the dryness of springs because eucalyptus roots don’t go too much in the ground. It is one of the plants whose root goes down by around 20 feet if somewhere water table down from 20 feet then eucalyptus doesn’t affect it.
According to The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 report, Pakistan is still in the top 10 most affected countries due to recent climatic changes.
Dr. Shams Ali Bag who is Assistant Professor in the Environmental Sciences department at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan explained the shift in the weather in Lower Dir and links the issue with Climatic Changes in the region.
He said the snowfall was heavily in winters about two decades ago and the road between Dir and Chitral was blocked for over 6-month because of the glaciers and avalanches. There are fever glaciers stored now because there has been little snowfall during the last five years. Due to this, we have little water left underground and in rivers too.
