RELLATED
Harnessing Local Wisdom for Sustainable Development in Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is known for its stunning natural beauty, and for its people.
What is less known is the symbiotic relationship between the two. Spread over 72,496 km2
, it
boasts five of the world’s fourteen 8,000 m peaks, including the world’s second highest mountain
K2 which stands at 8611 m. The awe inspiring physical and natural attributes of the region exert an
attraction that few other places in the world can aspire to. It is also known for its self-confident,
industrious and welcoming people whose diverse ethnicities, languages and cultures, a result of
being on a strand of the Silk Road of old, has retained its Central Asian characteristics in terms of
living style. Progress over the years, prior to the opening of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), was
grounded in sustainability, much before the word ‘sustainability’ became a commonly (mis)used
term. The people of this region took the path of a unique sustainable lifestyle that allowed them
to respect and live in harmony and balance with nature and their physical surroundings.
This balance has been developed over centuries and I believe the two overarching and fully
interconnected fundamentals are ‘land use’ and ‘water use’.
While water resources are abundant, getting water to usable land has remained a major challenge.
What is striking for a visitor is the barrenness of the mountains interrupted by greenery which
cascades down hillsides resulting from irrigation channels meticulously engineered by human
effort with the simplest of tools. It is quite true to say that almost all greenery is man-made. There
is very little natural forestry in GB, because the area is above the Alpine tree line. The bulk of the
approximately 2492 km2 of forests (3.6% of GB’s area) are in Diamer district, with the other regions
having very little forest coverage. The shortage of usable land (for agriculture, agroforestry,
orchards, habitation) and the difficulty in getting water to that land have imposed severe carrying
capacity constraints on how much of a populace can be sustained. Historically, migration was the
preferred means of reducing the burden of overpopulation. This meant tasking communities to
build lengthy irrigation channels relying on gravity flow, in order to water sub-optimal and barren
lands in other valleys and settling these lands with the overflow of population.
It must also be said that these high mountain lands are high altitude deserts where water
availability, apportionment and usage is critical. The lifestyles, governance mechanisms and most
of all land use, is centred on water. The other point about water use is that there is a seasonal
scarcity of water, generally from November to March, as the streams fed by glacial melt begin to
run dry. This necessitated elaborate and meticulous water management systems, which in earlier
days could lead to major punishment if someone took even a small additional amount of water.
Understanding and implementing mechanisms to ensure sustainable liveability is thus central and
ingrained in traditional wisdom.
With a population in 2021 approaching 1.7 million (based on the 2017 census of 1.5 m and annual
population change of 2.87%), the density rate is 23/km2 which is relatively low. However, when
one takes into consideration that only 2% of the area is usable, the density climbs sharply to over
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1150/km2
. Estimates suggest that around 9.6% of land is labelled as barren and could be brought
into productive use by lifting water from rivers. Lands that could be irrigated, using nullahs and
streams, has more or less been done. The expanses of Bunji, Chilas, Skardu and other such areas
could thus be irrigated and help spread out populations and, furthermore, would also increase
land area that could be covered by greenery. If all this land is brought into use, the density would
drop to 211 per km2
.
Traditionally, the human footprint was minimal and scaled down. The vast bulk of the population
lived in the valleys near water sources, in villages and settlements in organised communities that
put a premium on sustainable land and water use. We could and should learn from the sustainable
practices these communities have successfully followed and which exist in their accumulated
wisdom. ‘Dead land’ which could not be used for any other purpose, such as growing crops, was
where clustered settlements grew and were made up of small units with communal spaces such
as gathering places, water reservoirs and religious buildings. The bulk of the usable land was given
over to agriculture. Fields, which were invariably small, followed natural contours. Specific areas
of land were set aside for orchards. Pastures higher up the mountain slopes were dedicated for
animal’s grazing. Utility and frugality underpinned life as it was very clear that the resources at
hand needed to be managed responsibly. Only those trees were grown which were fruit bearing,
or fast growing ones extensively for use in construction. As an example, when a male child was
born, the family would plant a dozen or more Poplars, and by the time the son was of marriable
age these trees would be cut down and a simple dwelling built. These were invariably small in size
– one main room with a number of spaces to cater for all the functions of a house – without any
openings other than a small door which opened into an entry space rather than directly opening
into the main room, to help retain warmth during the cold winter season. Warmth was provided
by having a central hearth with the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. This hole also
provided light. Walls were built of single rubble stone with Poplar timber bracing. Where wood
was more readily available, timber framed walls with adobe bricks were constructed and double
stories built if needed. In some parts of the region susceptible to earthquakes the roof comprised
a rotated square supported by beams to mitigate impact of seismic activity. The flat roofs
provided additional space, primarily for drying apricots, or for use in the summers for sleeping.
Invariably, these clustered villages shared lots of common walls.
Ecological practises allowed for sustainable development, which fits exceedingly well with the
world of today with its increasing emphasis on climate change, global warming and reduction in
the carbon footprint. Traditional wisdom was rooted in functionality, frugality, utilitarianism, and
optimal use of local resources. These were the pillars that guided a remarkably green, responsible
and sustainable approach for GB. This approach, which centres on water and land use, is
increasingly relevant today.
Physical isolation ended with the opening of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) in the early 1980s.
This was followed by development activities where ‘modernity’ was introduced and foisted on to
local sensibilities in the form of out of place concrete buildings unsuited to the region and, more
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recently, the opening up of the region to unsustainable levels of unregulated tourism. The
unregulated rise in tourism has put a lot of pressure on the fragile natural resources of the entire
region. Annual domestic tourist inflow increased from 50,000 per annum (on average), before
2014, to 600,000 per annum in 2015. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Tourism
Development Corporation (PTDC), 1.72 million tourists visited the region in 2019, which was more
than triple the number of tourists to visit it in the previous year. While 2020 witnessed the negative
impact of Covid, 2021 has seen a further increase in domestic tourist visitation to GB as a result of
improved access including the opening of flights from Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad and
Multan, to Skardu. This has led to seasonal overcrowding in areas where destination facilities are
inadequate to meet the growing demand. On the one hand socio-economic transformation has
resulted in increased household incomes, but on the other the pressure on the fragile landscape
is immense in terms of land and water use.
Land use issues are compounded by unmanageable levels of tourism and need a serious rethink
of other infrastructure such as sewerage, waste disposal and roads. Sewerage systems that add
to and promote not only a cleaner life but also improve crop returns should be actively addressed.
Where once there was no waste or garbage, as everything was ‘recycled’, now the problem of
waste management and disposal and pollution, especially plastic pollution, is threatening the
ecosystem. Provision of road infrastructure does not mean only constructing roads but also
having adequate parking areas constructed close to, but well outside built up areas alongside the
main Highway arteries, thereby restricting all tourist and trade oriented transport to main
highways. The idea being that all transport that is not local should be made to terminate in
properly managed parking sites adjacent to the Highway, whereafterlocal transport services such
as Taxis and goods transport vehicles should be employed to ferry visitors and goods to and from
the towns and villages.
The greatest natural resource of this region is the abundance of its water available from its rivers
and glaciers. How we manage water is of importance not only for GB but for the very survival of
Pakistan. GB is central to the Indus River System as a water reservoir and provider. The Indus
River, in its 550 km journey through GB, receives inflow from major tributaries namely the rivers
Shingus, Shyok, Shigar, Hunza, Gilgit, Astore, Darel and Tangir which are in turn fed by numerous
rivers, rivulets and streams originating from the 2200 km2 permanently glaciated regions and
snowfields (above 2500 m), the largest outside the polar regions. Estimates suggest that 65-80 %
of the total annual flow to the Indus River, the lifeblood of Pakistan, is due to the snow and glacial
melt waters of GB originating mainly from the Karakoram mountain range. Protecting these water
resources should therefore be a top priority for Pakistan. That means starting with what can and
should be done in GB.
By harnessing waterpower the quality of life and natural balance will improve. All fuels (kerosene,
diesel, petrol, gas, coal) are transported into the region, from outside, but often do not meet the
area’s needs, thus during winter even fruit trees are cut for fuel. Hydropower can and should
replace the growing need for lighting, cooking, heating, transportation (electric cars), industrial
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