KHYBER: Nearly a century-old irrigation system in Upper Bara region here has gone almost decayed due to a lack of maintenance during the2012-2022absence of local communities from the region due to militancy and military operations.
Built in 1930s by farmers from different villages in Upper Bara on self-help basis, the irrigation canals network included 6.5km of canal from Speen Drand to Shiekhmali Bara, 5km in Kandaw Jumat, Abdulkhel Kalay, 4.5km in Dray Wandy village, 2.5km in Tharkho Kas and 2km from Speen Drand to Shiekhmali Baba with the Bara River as its main water source.
According to villagers, these canals would irrigate thousands of kanals of their fertile farmlands with the main channel originating from Qambar Khel area and later divided into auxiliary canals to provide irrigation water to different parts of Upper Bara.
They said that initially, local villagers had relied on long logs, brought from nearby forests which were then sliced in the middle and then curved into a watercourse by local craftsmen which were then used as a canal to provide water to the farmlands away from River Bara.
Farmers fear serious financial problems over delayed action
Qazi Farman, a young farmer and a social activist of Sipah tribe told Dawn that the decade long displacement of nearly 1,500 families had caused much damage to the nearly a century-old irrigation system, with most of the wood used in those channels already decayed. Also, floods in the River Bara had washed away a major portion of these channels.
He said that the region would produce the best quality of rice, pomegranates, grapes, plums and a variety of fruits and vegetables when they had their irrigation channels. “Local rice used to be our most profitable agricultural produce, which we would sell in Kurram and Orakzai markets in large quantities,” he said.
The grower said that the orchards of Farid Khan, Sanobar Khan and Nadar Khan were known for their best quality fruits and sprawling sizes.
“All these orchards have now vanished with fruit trees dried for a lack of irrigation water during our period of displacement,” he said.
Social activist Turab Ali argued that huge quantities of river water went to waste due to breaches in the old and damaged channels, while the local farmers could not bear the cost of repairing them or building new ones due to financial constraints.
He said that vast fertile lands were becoming barren due to unavailability of irrigation water, with almost 80 per cent of the local population depending on the dwindling agricultural produce from their shrinking farmlands.
“A delegation of the provincial irrigation department along with some NGO members visited the region in 2022 on the instructions of the then commissioner of Peshawar, but no concrete steps were taken to repair and regulate the damaged irrigation system of Upper Bara,” he said.
Farmer Farman insisted that if timely action was not taken by the relevant department to repair the damaged water channels, more fertile lands would go to waste, causing serious financial problems for growers.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2026