PESHAWAR, July 24: Vast agricultural land in several districts of the NWFP are facing erosion because of weak embankments on the Kabul and Swat rivers, according to experts.
Agriculture experts said the NWFP lost a considerable area of cultivated land because of erosion in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera districts.
A survey by Dawn revealed that fertile areas along the Kabul river in Nowshera and Peshawar districts were fast eroding due mainly to the government’s inability to take steps to protect them.
According to official estimates, about 15 per cent of the province’s cultivated land faced moderate and four per cent slight erosion.
“Weak embankments,” said an official of the provincial government, “not only negatively affect productivity of the agriculture land but also result in loss of precious land due to erosion by the Kabul and Swat rivers.”
Following a spate of flash floods in 2003-4, the NWFP government undertook several small schemes of constructing studs, side walls and protection walls in along the Kabul river in Peshawar district to check land erosion.
However, according to officials, a vast area along Shah Alam, Naguman and Adaizai tributaries of the river is exposed to the growing problem.
Though walls had been constructed to protect agriculture land vulnerable to erosion in several villages of Peshawar district during the past two years, the problem, said an official, was much more serious than the effort being made by the provincial government.
Tapu Koroona, Garhi Sherdad, Mian Jee Baba, Piari Bala, Jehangir Pura, Bachayano Qilla, Ghani Rehman Qilla and Jatti Bala villages are among several rural areas where the government carried out small schemes to protect cultivated area from erosion.
“A lot more work is needed to take care of the problem even in these villages and certain other areas along the Kabul river,” said an official of the irrigation department.
Similarly, people affected by last year’s heavy floods in Nowshera district told Dawn that weak embankments along Kabul river resulted in erosion of precious agricultural land in Chowki town area.
Shahla Khel, Barra Banda, Misal Abad, Dheri Khel villages were among the worst hit areas, they said.
“Neither the district nor provincial government is paying attention to the problem of land erosion,” said Raambel, a farmer of Shahla Khel village.
The affected farmers said work on a small scheme of constructing a protection wall in Shahla Khel village financed from the development funds of the local member of the provincial assembly, Maulana Mujahid, had not been completed. “The protection wall meant to avoid inundation of residential area in Shahla Khel is incomplete,” said a farmer.
Officials said the Nowshera district government had neither financial nor human resources required to tackle the problem.
The provincial government, too, did not have fiscal space to meet the growing problem, said an official.