Ra Zhoi breach flooding damages houses and crops

CHITRAL: Two houses along with standing crops were damaged by gushing water flowing from Khot’s popular centuries-old Ra Zhoi (canal) after a breach in it in Durzich village, local people said.

They said mud had fallen into the canal near the village which could not be removed on time. As a result, the flow of water in the canal was blocked leading to the breach.

After the breach, the water flooded the village and continued flowing through standing crops for over two hours. The flooding water damaged the crops as well as houses of two residents.

Local people managed to stop the supply of water in the canal from its source and saved the area from further damages.

The residents said they had suffered huge losses in terms of damages to their crops and houses. They said they also needed help from government agencies to get the breach in the canal repaired.

According to a report published in Dawn newspaper on March 12, 2019,  Ra Zhoi is an example of the centuries-old water use management system in Chitral which is still in practice and purely indigenous in nature.

This is catering to the needs of Chitral farmers by judicious distribution of water resources and assigning responsibility to the beneficiaries in maintenance of infrastructure commensurate to the share.

Chitral’s water canals are managed by people on self-help basis and very rarely they get financial assistance to repair the canals when they are damaged by floods.