Saving River Swat

The Swat Valley is named after the river whose Sanskrit/Prakrit name is ‘Suvastu’, meaning pure or white water. This river is considered to be the most important river after the Indus in the Hindu Kush mountain range.

The river originates from the glaciers of Gabral, Mahodand, Mankiyal, Shetangoot and Daral, and falls into the River Kabul after covering a distance of 320km, irrigating the entire Swat Valley. These tributaries have also been sanctified in the past. Tibetan pilgrims also tell the dragon story of the River Swat, according to which a dragon named Gabral lives at the end of the river, and when it is enraged by the misbehaviour of people living in the valley, it vomits, due to which the river floods.

The first major flood in the River Swat was recorded in the 1st century AD due to which the entire valley was submerged, and after this flood, all Buddhist monuments here in Swat started moving to the mountains. Historians have not mentioned any major floods since then. Our elders say that there was major flooding in the River Swat in 1929. The measure of its intensity is that, according to the elders, the flood rose over the bridge to Darolai across the cliff in Bahrain bazaar. The bridge was high enough to measure the intensity of the flood and the amount of water flow.

The July 2010 flood was probably greater than the 1929 flood that washed away the rock bridge, and the subsequent August 2022 flood was even more severe, with its flow and volume approximately 30-40 per cent more than that of the 2010 flood.

Daral, a tributary of the Swat river, falls in Bahrain, the geographically central town of the Swat Valley. The lake above it, now mostly known as Dand Ghara (Dhan Kaash in Torwali, written Dhan Kusha by Dr Giuseppe Tucci) is called the sacred lake, and Dr Tucci asserts that the Buddhist monk in Swat, Padmasambhava, used to bathe in this lake. The Daral and Gabral valleys are the largest tributaries of River Swat River, apart from the phonetic similarity of their names.

We in Torwali simply call the River Swat ‘Ghen Nhed’ – meaning: big river. This is because it is the largest among other rivers in Swat.

The Swat Valley owes its existence to the River Swat, ‘Suvastu’. Without it, the history of Swat is incomplete, and Swat was ‘uddiyana’, a garden, due to this river. Tourism in Swat is also impossible without this river.

But the river is facing many threats, including pollution that increases due to the rising population and flash flooding. The most serious threat to this river is posed by three major hydropower projects designed on it in the barrow Torwali valley from Madyan town to Kalam. These are meant to convert the river into a tunnel in Kalam and build the powerhouse in Asrit.

From Asrit village, another tunnel is to be built for diverting the river and building the powerhouse near Kedam; and then from Kedam, the river will be diverted into another tunnel that will open near Madyan.

This clearly means that the River Swat would flow through invisible tunnels within the mountains from Madyan to Kalam instead of its present course. In other words, if these plans are made, we will not see the river from Madyan to Kalam from September to May.

These projects could wreak havoc on the environment, resulting in the rise in temperature in the area and the destruction of tourism in the area. This will ultimately devour the beauty of this valley, drying off the springs and fields here. From Madyan to Kalam, there will be no river but a dried stream of rubble, boulders and sand. Tourism in Bahrain, Mankiyal, Kedam, Laikot and Pushmal will be destroyed.

In a highly technical way, the state and its institutions carry out their work in such projects by dividing local people into ‘directly’ and ‘indirectly’ affected. Those who are directly affected are appeased by giving money, and those who are indirectly affected are usually kept away from this counselling process.

Among these three projects, the work on the Madyan Hydropower Project is about to start for which the procurement process has already started. It will be a 12km-long tunnel, and the project is estimated to generate 207MW of electricity. The total cost of this project is said to be Rs65 billion.

These three projects mostly affect Torwali and Gujjar communities in Bahrain tehsil.

Pakistan is a strange country. Across the world, countries prefer small projects over big ones on rivers because the protection of rivers is as important for climate as forests. But governments here are fond of long tunnels. Adopting the same old technology, long tunnels are being dug for the generation of hydropower.

When a public hearing was held in Madyan last year on the Madyan Hydropower Project, people expressed strong reservations, and that meeting failed; however, PEDO, the responsible energy agency for this province, did not mention it in any of its reports.

The locals have strong reservations about these projects. Now, since only the Madyan hydropower project is under consideration, the people of Bahrain, and the villages affected by this project, such as Mankar, Ayeen, Darolai, Ponkia, Gurnai and Ghorijo Ramet have started raising their concerns in several meetings.

So far there have been three meetings where a majority of people have spoken against these projects. The majority is against these projects and do not want to discuss any other plans in this regard.

The River Swat belongs to the entire Swat Valley. Civil society members, including environmentalists and journalists, intelligentsia, and provincial political parties must join the people of Swat to save the river.

The writer heads an independent organisation dealing with

education and development in Swat. He can be reached at:

ztorwali@gmail.com