Upper Swat Canal is an irrigation canal located in the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The canal takes off from

Swat River The Swat River (, ) is a perennial river in the northern region of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The river's source is in the high glacial valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains, where it then flows into the Kalam Valley before for ...

at Amandarra Headworks in

Malakand District Malakand District (, ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Malakand Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Until 1970, it was a part of the Malakand Protected Area of the erstwhile Provincially Administered Tribal Area(P ...

. It irrigates a large area in the north of

Mardan District Mardan District (, ) is a district in the Mardan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The district is named after Mardan city, which is also the headquarters of the district. The district is famous for its agriculture indust ...

, Swabi District and the north-eastern portion of the Charsadda District. The

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

area is 276,000 acres of land and discharge is 1,800 cusecs. The length of the main canals is 138 miles and that of the distributaries is 431 miles.

History

Background

During the expansion of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, the

Malakand Pass The Malakand Pass (; ) is a mountain pass in the Malakand District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that connects Peshawar with the Chitral District. The pass road begins at Dargai, which is 150 km the north-west from Islamabad. It then slopes upward towar ...

was a point of battle in 1897 between the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and the local tribesmen who showed heavy resistance. In 1907, the

conceived the Benton Tunnel and Upper Swat Canal project to irrigate the dry

Valley of Peshawar The Valley of Peshawar (; ) is a broad area situated in the central part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The valley is in area, and is traversed by the Kabul River. It has a mean elevation of . The valley takes its name from the c ...

and to appease and improve their image among the local tribes.

Original alignment

After completing preliminary work, surveys, acquiring land and selecting alignments, it was found that the alignment of the main canal from

Chakdara Chakdara (چکدرہ) is a city in the Lower Dir District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the second largest city in Dir Lower after Timergara. It serves as a gateway of Malakand Division. It is located in the center of Malakand Divisi ...

was interfered by graveyards, hence it had to be abandoned. This alignment consisted of a 5,000 feet long tunnel, with a slope of 1/100, velocity of 15.2 feet per second and a discharge of 2,394 cusecs.

New alignment

A new alignment was soon found, however the new alignment included a longer tunnel through the

. The costs were cut by constructing a shorter and more direct main canal. The new tunnel was 11,235 feet (2 miles) long, with a slope of 1:215, velocity of 11.2 feet per second and a discharge of 2,218 cusecs.

Execution

Work on the tunnel began in March 1910 and was completed in 1914 (now called Benton Tunnel), with

in the region commencing the same year. The Upper Swat Canal was declared complete by the

in late 1916 and the cost was "206 lakhs of Rupees" or Rs20.6 million at the time. It was supervised and executed by Executive Engineer of the

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November ...

at the time, W.P Sangster. Even though the original design of the Upper Swat Canal had a much greater discharge, the Benton Tunnel created a bottleneck due to its unlined nature, hence the total discharge of the canal was limited to 1,800 cusecs.

Impact

The local population began to grow along with the production of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, fruits and vegetables. Small villages grew into small towns, the local population began to grow

Poplar tree ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

s along the canal and waterways. They started growing two crops a year instead of one, with most growing three. The canal brought great prosperity to the region and has become an integral part of it. More than one million people directly or indirectly depend on the Upper Swat Canal for their livelihood. The canal transformed the

Peshawar Division Peshawar Division is an administrative division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It was abolished in the reforms of 2000, like all divisions, but reinstated in 2008. At independence in 1947, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then North-West Fron ...

from a

rainfed Rainfed agriculture is a type of farming that relies on rainfall for water. It provides much of the food consumed by poor communities in developing countries. E.g., rainfed agriculture accounts for more than 95% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa ...

to a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

irrigated area.

Restoration works

Between 1990 and 1999 the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...

spent roughly US$130 million to upgrade the existing system of the Upper Swat Canal and the Lower Swat Canal by improving surface and subsurface

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

, remodelling the

system, renovating

watercourses A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

and providing support facilities.https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-documents//pcr-pak-21125.pdf The project also involved the creation of an auxiliary tunnel to overcome the Benton Tunnel's bottleneck.

References

{{coord missing, Pakistan Canals in Pakistan Canals opened in 1914 Irrigation canals