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Mountain water pipe brings a bonus: peace
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When a pipeline was installed last year to bring spring water and snow melt to this village of 500 households in northern Pakistan, it brought something else as well: peace.
Previously, neighbors argued over the limited water that coursed through channels to the town.
The community strictly regulated water use, with each household allowed half an hour of supply a week to irrigate their fields.
Cheating brought arguments.
To wash their clothes or to bathe, villagers had to clamber down to the river at the bottom of the valley. Fetching drinking water meant climbing up the steep mountainside to a spring.
But not any more.
鈥淚 would say 90 percent of our issues have now been resolved,鈥 said Shereen Akhtar, a resident and the locally elected representative to the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative
Assembly. 鈥淣ow there is peace in Siksa.鈥
The pipeline, sunk a meter into the ground, uses gravity to carry water 6 kilometers from the heights of the Karakoram Mountains in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan鈥檚 northern-most region.
It feeds into a 30,000-liter storage tank, which directs the water through irrigation channels that supply 4,000 people, said Aisha Khan, who heads the Mountain and Glacier Protection Organization, a non-profit that works in the region.
She estimates the system now channels over 5 billion liters of water a year 鈥 and ensures a water supply year-round.
The project was constructed in response to the effects of climate change, she said, which has led to more erratic water supplies in mountain areas, putting lives and incomes at risk. 鈥淲inters are becoming milder and shorter with less snowfall, and summers are getting longer and warmer,鈥 she said.
And with changes in rainfall patterns affecting farming, she said, ensuring food security is seen as the first step in building resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts.
鈥淭hat can only be achieved by providing mountain communities with a reliable source of water in the right quantity and at the right time,鈥 Khan said.
World Health Organization figures show just 36 percent of Pakistan鈥檚 population has access to safe drinking water.
Siksa鈥檚 water supply project took a year to put in place, and cost about 15.5 million Pakistani rupees (US$126,000).
The community provided the labor and about one-fifth of the money, with most of the rest coming from the Coca-Cola Foundation.
Sakina, who like most villagers uses just one name, said that until a few years ago water was abundant, with heavy winter snow meaning plenty of water flowed even in summer.
鈥淏ut for several years now the winters are not so cold anymore and there is less snowfall. That meant less water for irrigation and less crops and income,鈥 she said.
But since the water storage tank was installed, 鈥渁ll these fields have become green again鈥, she said, pointing to terraced fields where tomatoes, aubergine, okra and pumpkin grow against a backdrop of towering, bare-sloped mountains.
鈥淲e can now cook vegetables like okra and aubergine which was unheard of before.鈥
鈥淓arlier our vegetables would just dry up after we planted them,鈥 the mother-of-three added.
The steady supply of water even means Siksa鈥檚 homes are decorated with pots and baskets of flowers.
鈥淥ur homes are now scrupulously clean, and we can plant flowers too as we now have plenty of water,鈥 said Husniat, a teacher at one of the village鈥檚 two schools.
In recent years, Husniat said, the lack of water meant it was hard to ensure children stayed clean.
鈥淲e would have to go fetch water in plastic containers from springs higher up in the mountains, which would take hours, then use it sparingly to wash clothes and for cooking and drinking. It was exhausting,鈥 she said.
Water surplus
A reliable supply of water also has allowed villagers for the first time in year to sell a surplus of vegetables grown in the nearby market towns of Khaplu and Skardu, Khan said.
They are predicting an even bigger harvest next year, after discovering the water supply is sufficient to irrigate additional farmland, she said.
Villagers also have planted fruit trees 鈥 meaning better nutrition and higher incomes.
In an effort to help combat global warming, they have planted 10,000 poplar trees as well in the past two years.
鈥淲e took the rocks out of the barren ground with our bare hands and planted each tree and watered it. The plantation area has become so green now we all go there in the summers for picnics,鈥 Sakina said.
Khan said the previous government had pushed for more tree planting and provided villagers with free popular saplings, which will also become a new source of income as they grow: Timber from a mature poplar would fetch about US$325.
Sakina said Siksa residents know they should not fell trees for fuel but the electricity in the village is erratic, leaving them little choice.
鈥淲ithout a proper supply of electricity to run our heaters, what can we do?鈥
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