By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: Drought is looming large over Chitral due to the elongated dry spell starting from the month of December last year as the valley did not receive snowfall during the winter season and no rainfall during the current spring season.
A number of the symptoms of drought have become manifested so far which including fading away of springs, diminished wheat and barley crops in highland, disappearance of vegetation in the meadows and hill-foots which used to wave and adorned the valley in the months of March and April.
As per reports received from different sub-valleys of the district, wheat crops have withered away in Mulkow, Shotkhar, Zezdi Madak, Lone, Dune Oveer, Lawi and other places where irrigation water is scarce.
A farmer from Mulkhow area Danishmand Khan said that the farmers of the area had no option other than harvesting it in raw form to feed the animals as the area was dependent on rainfall in the spring season.
He said that due to the scanty snowfall during the winter season, the quantity of water in the stream has dropped to abysmally low level while natural spring have also faded away.
Mr. Khan said that the fruit orchards have also been adversely affected due to the lack of rainfall and the petals of flowers in the fruit trees dropped well before they developed into fruit embryo and all it happened due to the shortage of water.
He said the upper part of Chitral was known for the fruits of apple, pear, peach, apricot and cherry which were produced on commercial scale but this year the product will be almost zero in the region.
Shahzada Munir, the village nazim of Reshun, said that the crop of vegetables of different genres had also affected in different parts of the district due to the scanty rainfall and the sowing activity has yet to gain momentum as it used to do in the past.
He said that a large number of farmers used to grow vegetables on commercial scale and derived their sustenance from it and the magnitude of produce depended on the frequency of rainfall in the season which was quite scanty this year.
The village nazim said that the situation will become tenser for the farmers than ever before by the end of the month when the shortage of irrigation water will be acute for irrigating the crops, fruit orchards and the grasses which become the fodder of animals.
He said that the quantity of water in the stream have dropped in quantity by more than half of the past in the absence of snowfall and it may fade away completely by the month of July and this will be a horrendous situation for the villagers.
The local people of Golen have apprehended that the diminishing of water in the stream may lead to affect the generation of the 108-MW hdyro power station of WAPDA whose first unit was inaugurated in January last.
Maulana Rahmatullah AKhonzada of Mori Lusht said that the present magnitude of water flow may not suffice to efficiently run the three turbines of the power station and generating the target quantity of electricity.
The MPA from upper Chitral Syed Sardar Hussain Shah said that mass migration of people is imminent with the advent of summer season due to the scarcity of drinking and irrigation water.
He said that the people have started selling their livestock at throw away prices in the face of drought while livestock keeping is one of the major sources of sustenance of the people which is not possible without agriculture.
Mr. Shah said that he will take up the matter on the floor of the house vigorously to bound the government to make special arrangements to provide water to the villages from river through solar powered pumps which was the only alternative.
He said that he will also make the PDMA to be red alert to cope with the situation as the drought will spell out untold miseries for the people of Chitral.
