SRINAGAR: Nearly 90 million litres of glacial water have started irrigating more than 1,000 acres of parched farmlands across 12 villages in Ladakh every day, thanks to a pioneering initiative by lieutenant governor (LG) V K Saxena last month.The massive volume of glacier-melt, previously flowing untapped into the River Indus, is now being channelised from Stok village nallah in Leh into the Igoo-Phey Irrigation Canal using simple earthwork that incurred little capital expenditure.It was an appeal from a village chief that drove the LG to brainstorm on harnessing glaciers and snowmelt for productive use. According to officials, Saxena was on a visit to Chuchot village in Leh where the ‘goba’ (or nambardar, the traditional village head), Mirza Hussain, sought his intervention to address the acute water shortage in the village.The plea prompted the LG to spearhead a comprehensive and systematic campaign to identify locations where large volumes of glacial water were flowing down unused, draining straight into the Indus, even as surrounding farmlands remained dry, officials said.The govt first identified Stok village nallah, fed by the Stok Kangri Glacier, as one such place where glacier water could be diverted into the existing canal. Officials said the discharge from Stok nallah was assessed at 36 cusecs, or approximately 90 million litres of water in 24 hours.Two channels were then created to divert nearly 80 million litres of water into the Igoo-Phey Canal — 62 million litres toward Igoo village upstream and approximately 18 million litres toward Phey village downstream.This daily flow has substantially augmented the total water flow in the Igoo-Phey Canal — from 50 cusecs to nearly 90 cusecs. As a result, water supply will be guaranteed daily to the 12 villages fed by the canal. Previously, water from the 43-km-long Igoo-Phey Canal was distributed to villages on a restrictive roster basis due to limited availability.Having successfully channelised 80 million litres of water into the Igoo-Phey Canal, the remaining 10 million litres were diverted into another dry canal at Chuchot, and will help irrigate farmland in and around the village, officials said.
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“The entire 90 million litres of water was tapped and the discharge from Stok Kangri glacier into the Indus River was reduced to zero in just two days at no cost,” said an official, adding that the success of the initiative serves as a blueprint for water management across the Union Territory.
