Water Politics and Corruption in Zhob

In this area of Pakistan, mountains are dry with no greenery. People walk miles to get water. Most people live around a karez*. If the water in a karez goes down, there is nothing to support life.

Shah Wali, a tribal sardar (chief) of the area, with the help of the local people, convinced the Pakistani government to finance a one inch wide pipeline bringing water from a kilometer and a half to a location next to his home. He then prevented the common villagers from fetching water through his self-supporting system.

Probably because of this incident, when the Shahabzai villagers heard his son opposing the dam which their community wanted to build with the help of the Human Development Foundation (HDF), they stood up in fighting mode forcing the current sardar to back down.

Their struggle was successful. Now the Shahabzai dam stands as a defiant achievement of common people who are taking charge of their destiny by helping people help themselves. The dam will benefit people and orchards of 15 villages.

This is the fascinating story of water, power, and abuse before the Shahabzai dam. Shahabzai Village is about twenty miles away from the city of Zhob in Baluchistan. It is about 700 kilometers away from Karachi, where HDF in collaboration with the local community has built a dam to cope with the simmering water shortage in this area. Sher Kamal Khan** was the powerful tribal chief of this village who got a water supply system established, with the help of local people, through the government. After a few months, he ordered that "no one can get water from here right from now".

It was 1986, when Sher Kamal Khan invited the villager and apprised them about his idea which could cater to their long-standing water needs. The idea was very simple in nature but it needed funds, which was major problem for the mainly poor villagers. The idea was that a water tank be constructed that would store water brought in from a karez spring situated one and half kilometers away through a pipeline. This way the water that people would walk for one and a half kilometers to get, would be brought to their village. They agreed with chief's proposal to approach the government to finance the project. All agreed to sign a petition with their thumbs on a paper.

Sher Kamal Khan, approached the government high-ups and was successful in convincing them about the water shortage faced by the local people. Armed with application with hundreds of thumbprints the project was approved by the government after conducting a survey.

Sher Kamal Khan, a big contractor himself, was awarded the contract to build the water tank and the pipeline. He built the tank just next to his home.

The village people were thankful to him for his "kind" and "selfless" services. They did not realize what would happen to the water tank.

The system worked for a few months in a fair way. Three faucets were open for villagers to take water from it. But one hot evening of 1987, Sher Kamal Khan issued a decree that no one could get water from the water tank any more. The reasons given were that it was "constructed by me" and because it disturbed his privacy. Since then only Sher Kamal Khan and a few relatives had access to this water.

The order fell like a bomb shell on the local people. However, they could not do anything against a powerful tribal chief who had contacts with important people. They returned to their routine, again traveling one and half Kilometers to fetch water.

Some of the local elders tried to convince Sher Kamal Khan to review his decision but he refused to do that saying "mine and my family's privacy is more important than any other thing. I have done all this work myself, and I have the right to use this water. You can fetch water from the old site."

The pipeline between pool and hill, however, became rusty and later damaged completely after 9 years due to nature of soil in that area. In the meantime, Sher Kamal Khan also died in 1996.

His Son Sher Jamal Khan**, approached the government for repair of pipeline and also sought the help of locals in this regard. This time, however, neither government nor villagers helped him. Reportedly, the government expressed inability to repair the pipeline due to the scarcity of funds. One could find the remains of pipeline near the Shahabzai dam.

Surprisingly, Sher Jamal Khan opposed the construction of dam in spite of the fact that he also had to either fetch water from the old site or buy it from the city.

But, the time is changed. The local people tackled his opposition and joined hands with the HDF to build the dam. The dam was completed in the first week of July 2001 with a total cost of Rs 2.2 million (35,000 US Dollars) . Some 50 villages will benefit from this dam.

*A karez, according to britannica.com "consists of underground channels and galleries that collect subsoil water at the foot of hills and carry it to the fields and villages. The water is drawn from the channels through shafts that are sunk into the fields at suitable intervals. Because the channels are underground, the loss of water by evaporation is minimized."

** The name has been changed to hide the identity of the persons involved.