Necessity being the mother of invention, villagers in the North are planting glaciers to meet their water needs
VILLAGE elders, their heads together, intensely discuss and go on to decide arrangements for a unique ‘marriage’ ceremony.
The task in hand is to choose a male piece and a female piece of ice. Their decisions set in motion a series of rituals, two chunks of ice, one each from a female and a male glacier are then transported to an appropriate location. During the whole exercise, porters carrying the pieces, observe complete silence. The pieces of ice are then placed side by side, close enough for both chunks to eventually induce ‘offspring’ in the shape of fresh water — a new source of irrigation and drinking water.
There is trouble in the northern areas of Pakistan. A growing population and fast receding resources of water are making life for the already hard pushed people of the North, more difficult. But not to be outdone by man-made troubles, the laborious folk of the North are fast re-discovering a unique system of water management.
The process can be called water planting. Tradition has it that, village elders gather to select a suitable site and large blocks of ice, equal sizes, one male and one female, cut from two different glaciers, and then carried to an appointed location. The gender of the glacier is determined by taking into consideration factors such as the characteristics of the people living in the nearby areas with male glaciers were thought to produce a higher yield and fertility as well as strong male population. Female glacier areas were said to have opposite characteristic, and home to a significant numbers of beautiful women. Also, it is vital to transport both blocks in one go, and those carrying the ice are to do so in complete silence. Once moved to another location, the blocks of ice would be allowed to accumulate snow in the winter, thereby increasing in size and density. In summer they were covered with canopy to shield them from the heat of the sun. A few years later the blocks of ice would be transformed into new glaciers, providing a new source of irrigation and drinking water for the community.
Last year, a community based organization called Parbat Social Welfare Organisation (PSWO) in Chilas, district Diamir planted glacier seeds in six different locations. Continuous drought like situation in many villages in the district has forced the villagers to think of innovative ideas to harness water. A social activist, Manawar Khan, after reading about this tradition, motivated a bunch of volunteers from PSWO to initiate breeding of glaciers as a sustainable alternative to offset water scarcity in the area.
Immediately he constituted a committee to survey for an appropriate location in the mountains where these glaciers can be planted. Subsequently six locations were identified. The surveyors had to make sure that the snow and ice at the selected locations will not melt for eight to ten months. For this, the men had to sit and wait for long hours at various parts of the mountains to check the intensity of sunlight and length of shadows over it.
Then comes the identification of the male and female glaciers and to arrange for their transport. In this case, PSWO volunteers travelled 230 kilometres to Bagrot Valley near Gilgit, from where they transported male and female glaciers in separate vehicles all the way to Babusar in Chilas. These were then transported non-stop to Babusar, Babusar Shoti, Batogah, Plaelot, Shregalihador and Gohar Abad. The volunteers then carried pieces of ice in their back-pack to the location that is 14 thousand feet above sea level.
At the breading locations, volunteers had already prepared a sixty feet round and nine feet deep holes. First the male glacier is in the hole followed immediately by the female one. A whizzing sound finally confirms that the marriage has taken place and gone well.
The practice of breeding glacier has been on the decline. But rapidly vanishing glaciers and water springs have provided a new impetus for drawing on the traditional wisdom of the communities.
“I moved here some 20 years ago along with many other families, as at that time this was a very fertile village with abundance of water for growing wheat and fruit tree. Today the glacier that was our source of water, has dried up. During the last couple of years we have not been able to grow anything. Our trees are dying. Some of the families have already moved out...” says 70 year old Gul Hafiz, a resident of Dadrapuke village in Ghizer.
The huge frozen water bodies have shaped peculiar traditions among people. Frozen in time for centuries, they have nurtured the social norms, beliefs, customs and the means of livelihood in of men, in harmony with nature and learning from it. Other than building channels over mountain ridges to steer water from springs and streams, the only way men here could think of harnessing a sustainable source of water is to develop a glacier, since lifting water up on the high and rugged terrain is a rather difficult preposition. Even with today’s sparsely available power infrastructure it is an unaffordable wish.
In numerous villages throughout the region, people plant glaciers. A few hundred meters down the hill they would even construct a little pound or a dam from where water could be channelled to the terraced fields and gardens. Every family will then use stored water one by one, with village headmen keeping a watch on the timely and effective use of available water resources for irrigation and drinking purposes.
Gang Singhe, overlooking Skardu, is one such hand-bred glacier. There are many folk tales associated with this glacier, which has developed in the shape of a horse. Changing weather patterns are affecting the livelihood of nearly a million people whose basic mainstay is substance agriculture based on growing wheat, maize, fruits, and raising livestock.
“Glaciers are melting. In my village Minapin, I recall walking over glaciers. There was a time when the snowfall in December and January use to turn in a glacier. The summer heat would then melt it gradually. The rain in summer, which carries moisture, hastens the melting process.
“Today, the most dangerous thing about glaciers are that in June and July we have stronger sunshine causing the glaciers to melt faster, and we don’t have snow stored as much as it should have been. Besides, the gradual melting procedure is no more there, meaning faster melting. So rivers rise unexpectedly causing floods. The result has been that many human settlements on riverbanks are no more there”, says Aga Yahya, a well-known community activist from village Minapin Nagar.
Increasing population is exerting stress on the limited two per cent cultivable land of the total 72,400 sq. km. Out this, one per cent is currently under cultivation while the remaining one per cent can be utilized, provided there is water. Irrigated land usually consists of small terraced fields, which normally relies on glacial melt for water. Fruit trees also constitute an important part of the local agriculture; some of the important fruits are apricots, almonds, grapes, cherries, apple, peaches, walnuts and mulberry. In recent years, fruits particularly dry fruits and nuts have become an important source of income for the villagers. The farming activities thus depend a lot on irrigation, as rainfall is low and erratic. Also over the years farmers use increased amount of water to irrigate their crops, resultantly, affecting down stream flow of water.
At the same time, deforestation, degradation of pastures, declining woodland and biodiversity, soil erosion and unorganized urbanization as well as mining practices, plus the phenomena of global warming are taking their toll on mountain watersheds in the upland.
Water is a shared resource and mountains provide much of the fresh water. Soaring population in both mountains and the plains continue to press demand for fresh water, conflict on water rights is a real threat at mountain as well as in the plains. Effective conservation of mountain ecology and promotion of sustainable harvesting of water emerging as one of the major challenges staring us in upcoming days and years. Our ability to feed growing number of people largely rests on an economy based on judicious use of water for life. These regions even serve as vital catchments for the Indus River, upon which much of the country’s agriculture and hydroelectricity depends so heavily.
Around 90 per cent of the low land flow of Indus originates in the mountains of the Karakoram and Western Himalaya. Therefore, mountains of the Northern Areas are in the true sense ‘water towers’ for the people and rest of the country.
The region contains some significant glacial systems outsides the Poles, including, the 72 kilometre long Siachan Glacier.
Other well-known glaciers situated in the region like Biafo, Hisper, Batura, Baltoro, Gashabrum and Chogolungma are reportedly retreating at a high rate due to multiple reasons including global warming. Naturally formed large glaciers are a gift of God and there is no way we could recreate the centuries old processes of gradual accumulation.
Here, breeding glacier could be more than a symbolic option; it will generate interest and public awareness for sustainable use of rapidly vanishing water dripping from the mountains.
Necessity being the mother of invention, villagers in the North are planting glaciers to meet their water needs 
