THREE years ago, I wrote in these pages about the growing water crisis confronting Skardu. At the time, the valley was witnessing an unprecedented tourism boom. Thousands of visitors were arriving every season and hotels were springing up everywhere. Yet beneath the optimism lay a looming crisis. The water supply system on which Skardu depended had already been under strain. Climate change had begun altering weather patterns — winters were becoming unpredictable, streams were freezing for longer periods, and hydropower generation was suffering. For the first time in living memory, drinking water had to be distributed through water tankers.

More than four centuries earlier, Gul Khatoon, the visionary Mughal princess and wife of Baltistan ruler Ali Sher Khan Anchan, had transformed the high-altitude desert of Skardu into a fertile valley through the construction of the Sadpara Dam and a canal network. Her achievement remains one of the greatest examples of public works undertaken in Baltistan’s history. In 2001, Wapda launched the upgradation of the Sadpara Dam project to enhance water storage, irrigation and power generation. Among its most important components was the diversion of water from the Shatung Nullah into the Sadpara reservoir. Reportedly to save the construction company from possible losses through an administrative decision, this critical component was abandoned.

As the years passed, repeated assurances were given to Skardu residents that the diversion project would be completed. Presentations were made, promises repeated and hopes raised. But the valley continued to face water shortages, while population growth, urban expansion and tourism steadily increased demand. It was against this backdrop that an alternative idea began to take shape.

The recently........

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