CHITRAL: An agricultural catastrophe is unfolding in Lower Chitral as persistent flash floods over the past month have devastated the local farming economy, leaving thousands of farmers suffering from absolute poverty.
The deluge has washed away the vital off-take and diversion structures of village canals that channel water from mountain streams to agricultural fields, entirely severing the irrigation.
In the worst-hit villages, including Sinkulum, Kol, Goldeh of Broze and Sheshi Koh, green fields have started transforming into barren expanses where crops of maize, paddy, vegetables and crucial livestock fodder have withered away under a scorching, forced drought.
For locals, these crops are not just food but their economic lifeline as they derive a major part of their household income from this yield apart from consuming it by themselves. “We depend entirely on these fields for our daily sustenance,” said a group of devastated farmers from Broze.
Growers fear famine as floods devastate farming economy; govt urged to release special grant for the region
“Selling our summer vegetables and orchard fruits like grapes, pears and apples is how we earn the hard cash needed to survive the rest of the year. Now, we have nothing left to sell, and soon, nothing left to eat,” they said.
The scale of the destruction has pushed the local farming community to the brink of despair as the torrents have obliterated the stone and mud diversion structures connecting village canals to the main streams. Rebuilding them requires heavy machinery and financial resources that is far beyond the financial capacity of the impoverished victims.
“The local government has absolutely no funds available to restore these communal off-take structures,” explained Amanullah, the former village nazim of Broze. He said that provincial irrigation department only maintained the specific channels constructed by their own office. “They refuse to touch these community-managed canals,” he added.
According to him, while local government department and tehsil municipal administration (TMA) legally hold the mandate to carry out these rehabilitation works, they have no funds.
“Nothing can move until the provincial government releases emergency special grants,” he said.
The disaster is already compounding into a secondary crisis for the region’s livestock because in Chitral’s fragile ecosystem, farmers rely heavily on summer fodder and mountain grass, which they dehydrate and store to keep their cattle alive during the freezing winter months.
“The flash floods struck a month ago, and the subsequent lack of water has completely dried up the grass,” Haji Munawar and other residents of Sinkulum told local journalists.
They said that without dried fodder for the winter, the drought-like situation would completely cripple their livestock. “We will be forced to sell our animals for pennies or watch them starve,” they added.
Community leaders have issued an urgent appeal to Provincial Disaster Management Authority and chief minister for immediate intervention before the damage to the region’s rural economy becomes permanently irreversible.
Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2026