Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 16: A vital water channel in Garkote village of Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is lying damaged for the past seven months, severely affecting the irrigation needs of local farmers.
According to residents, the steel flume that carried water from Nambla village to Garkote was damaged during road construction by the Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department last year.
Since then, they alleged, no repair work has been undertaken.
“This channel was our only source of irrigation. Ever since it was damaged, we have been facing immense difficulties,” said Ishfaq Shah, a local farmer.
“We had a good system in place, but after the road construction, everything was destroyed and nobody came back to repair it.”
The disruption has left many villagers struggling to irrigate their fields, with some spending thousands of rupees from their own pockets to restore the water supply.
The channel previously irrigated hundreds of kanals of agricultural land, locals said.
Locals allege that despite repeated pleas, the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department has failed to take any concrete steps to restore the flume or reinstate proper water flow.
“We pooled money from our own pockets to lay temporary pipes just to get water to our fields. I alone spent over Rs 17,000,” Ishfaq added.
“But that’s not a permanent solution. We need the original channel restored.”
Notably, the channel, built several years ago, had long served as a reliable source of irrigation for Garkote’s farmlands.
Its collapse has not only impacted crop productivity but also increased the financial burden on farmers already grappling with rising input costs.
Villagers are urging the administration to intervene and direct the concerned department to restore the channel before the peak cultivation season begins.
“If this continues, more fields will dry up and people may abandon farming altogether,” warned Shafiq Ahmad Bhat, another farmer.
A resident said the situation also poses a structural threat to his home. “They’ve been giving me false assurances for years that concrete work will be done to prevent further damage, but nothing has happened so far,” he said.
Locals have appealed to the district administration and higher authorities to hold both the R&B and I&FC departments accountable and ensure the immediate restoration of the damaged irrigation infrastructure.
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