De-silting, maintenance of Swat River canal system stressed

PESHAWAR: An agricultural expert and former secretary of Pakistan Tobacco Board, Peshawar, Khan Faraz has stated that farmers attached to the command area of the Machai Branch Canal have been reporting accumulation of silt/sand in their fields since the operation of the canal after 2022 devastating floods in Swat River causing 50 percent decline in their crops.

“Swat River is the main source of irrigation water supplies for the four major districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa i.e. Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera. It originates as the Ushu and Gabral rivers in the Kohistan range of the northern mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and takes the name of Swat River at Kalam at the confluence of the two rivers. Panjkora River from Dir Valley joins the Swat River downstream of Totakan,” Khan Faraz noted.

There are two major off-takes from the river, Upper Swat Canal at Amandara Headworks and Lower Swat Canal at Munda Headworks, he said. Apart from these two major off-takes, he added that dozens of civil canals are off-taking from the Swat River all along its length.

Commissioned in 1914, the Upper Swat Canal (USC) takes water from the Swat River at the Amandara Headworks, he said.“It was originally designed for a discharge of 2,420 cusecs to irrigate an area of 315,000 acres of the Charsadda - Mardan - Swabi Plain. The canal, after traversing the narrow ridge of Malakand hills through the unlined Benton Tunnel, eventually bifurcates at Dargai into the two branches of Machai and Abazai,” the former secretary of PTB explained. Khan Faraz said that formers linked with the command area of the Machai Branch Canal were reporting accumulation of silt/sand in their fields since the operation of the canal after the 2022 devastating floods in the Swat River.

“This is not only lowering withdrawal of design discharges in the off-taking distributaries and minor canals but also affecting deterioration of the soil texture and water supply to the fields. Recently, decline in crop yield up to 50 percent has been noticed in the command area due to these issues, especially in the newly constructed Baizai Irrigation Channel,” the expert said.

He said to address the issue, farmers of the affected areas were demanding the Irrigation Department should embark on remedial measures such as desilting, operationalization of silt excluder/ejectors, minor repairs and maintenance of these canals during the upcoming canal closure on a war footing basis to save poor farmers from financial loses by permanently rectifying the defects and operational issues of the complete canal system.