In the past several years numerous articles have been published in newspaper on the Nallah Mar; articles explaining the reasons behind its burial and conversion into a four lane road and articles highlighting the ecological, environmental, social and cultural disaster this unfortunate burial brought about. In the more recent discourse many people have stretched their arguments and would have us believe that if Nallah Mar had been functional the Srinagar would not have been inundated in Sep 14 or at least the extent of devastation would not have been as huge as it actually was. However, even a high level review of the huge flood discharge of Sep 2014 and the limited carrying capacity of Nallah Mar will show that all these arguments are not correct.
As regards reasons leading to burial of Nallah Mar, many attribute it to a sinister design of the governments in late 60s and early 70s to relocate some of the followers of Molvi Muhammad Farooq from downtown area and thus reduce his clout in the area. Others take a diametrically opposite view and are convinced that it was done to appease Molvi Mohammad Farooq since he had a large following in and around Mar. Still others argue that the objective was to enable movement of motor vehicles into the downtown and thereby have better and effective control over the law and order problems in the area. Yet some blame the short sightedness of the then local engineers who conceptualized, initiated and implemented the project without exploring other possible feasible alternatives.
While one can agree that to a certain extent to all of the above arguments but then they are not the basic or fundamental reason that led to its burial. All these reasons are incidental and actually triggered in at a much later stage when the damage to Mar was done and it had already become defunct. One fact, however, which no one disputes is that when it was decided to bury Nallah Mar it had already become defunct; an open sewer full of garbage, muck and night soil. Even calling it a sewer might not be correct because around the time of its burial it was hardly carrying any discharge and thus was more akin to a land fill site.
In order to get to the fundamental reason for decay of Nallah Mar one needs to travel back to the autumn of 1950 when a decision taken at the highest level adversely impacted the very existence of Nallah Mar (and Brari Numbal and Dal Lake), led to it becoming defunct and eventually to its burial. It was a decision taken in 1950 by the ‘popular’ government to appease a certain section of population / society which transformed a fresh water canal, Nallah Mar in which people used to bath, into a stinking sewer (or a land fill site).
Floods of 1950
Immediately after the partition in 1947 Kashmir suffered two floods; one in 1948 and the other in Sep 1950. The latter caused havoc and devastation across the valley. It was as a consequence to this flood that the government set up a separate Department of Irrigation with Er Mir Ghulam Rasool as its first Chief Engineer. Soon after Dr Uppal was engaged as a Consultant to the Department.
During this disastrous flood it is said that for the first time River Jhelum flooded Dal Lake; water from River Jhelum over topped the Ram Munshi Bagh Gate and entered the Dal Lake through Tsunthi Khul and thence through Dal Gate.
Post the flooding of the Lake the water level in the Dal Lake continued to remain high and showed no signs of receding in spite of the fact that the level in River Jhelum was dropping. The continued high level of water in Dal Lake became a matter of concern for the government who in order to lower it decided to make a cut at Nallah Amir Khan so as to drain it into Anchar Lake. The need and urgency of lowering the water level in the Lake was exacerbated by the fact that the vegetable gardens within the Dal Lake, which were then the main source of vegetables for the whole valley, had been inundated and a serious shortage of vegetables was experienced not only in Srinagar but also in the other towns of the Valley.
With the excavation of the Nallah Amir Khan link, between Dal Lake and Anchar Lake, the water level in the Lake dropped quickly and substantially. One can only guess today but it seems the excavation must have been a deep one with the result that while it drained the Dal and it also lowered the water level in Dal Lake much below the then normal prevailing ‘low water level’ of the Lake. This lowering of the water level understandably resulted in exposing or surfacing of new land mass particularly around areas abutting the lake.
It is said that with the surfacing of this ‘free land’ pressure was put on the then government not to raise the level of water to the previous one and to maintain this new ‘low’ water level. The pressure was put by some local people of these areas so that they could encroach and built on this ‘newly surfaced’ land. Only too willing to oblige and to create a vote bank in the areas abutting these newly discovered area the then ‘popular’ government, without attempting to understand the severe consequences of this ‘seemingly simple’ decision, gave in. This new low water level, which was substantially lower than the old level which had been maintained in the Lake for centuries, has since been maintained in the Dal Lake.
This decision to keep the lower water level in Dal Lake had a series of serious consequences on the Lake and its interconnected waterways including Nallah Mar. For one, the reduced depth of water in the Lake meant stronger exposure at bed level to sunlight which caused photosynthesis resulting in algae bloom in the Lake. Secondly, the land mass that surfaced on lowering of the water level encouraged and facilitated habitation resulting in encroachments and illegal constructions within and in the periphery of the Lake. Thirdly, the lowering of the water level resulted in turning Nallah Mar into a sewer, as is explained below.
Impact of Lowered Water Level in Dal Lake on Nallah Mar
Dal Lake was connected to River Jhelum through Brari Numbal Lagoon and the Nallah Mar. Nallah Mar got its flows via Brari Numbal Lagoon from Dal Lake and flowed into Khushalsar and Gillsar lakes via Eidgah and finally joined the Anchar Lake. Another branch flowed via Noorbagh into river Jhelum. Nallah Mar is said to have been excavated during Budshah’s time (14 century AD) for inland transportation, to regulate water levels, to irrigate Pargana Achan at the terminus and to make this water available to people in Idgah area. Historian Sir Aurel Stein though maintains that a canal or a brook already existed there and that Budshah might have revived the same canal. The canal is said to have been self-replenishing and self-cleansing. The canal bed was tiled with flat stones and bricks so that the canal remained clean and water could flow smoothly through it. The canal acted as a flood channel too and would channelise the flood water into Anchar Lake and ultimately into Wular through Jhelum and its tributaries.
The decision of the ‘popular’ government to keep the water level in Dal Lake low dealt a death blow to Nallah Mar. As a consequence of maintaining a lower water level in Dal, the head available (difference between water levels in Dal, Nallah Mar and River Jhelum) was reduced resulting in lower velocity of flow and thus a reduced discharge through the Mar. Reduced velocity of the flow meant decreased ability to carry sediment load. This low velocity, discharge and depth of water within the Mar adversely impacted the navigability in the Mar.
While the Mar was suffering the consequences of this disastrous decision of the ‘popular’ government, there were several other things happening at the same time which were to impact Nallah Mar and result in it losing its utility and importance and eventually becoming defunct. These are briefly listed below:
i. The City was expanding and the centers of activity was now shifting south wards. This led to the diminution in the importance of the earlier business area and hence in the navigation function and importance of Nallah Mar.
ii. This was further accentuated by the development of road network and the introduction and growth of motorized transport in Srinagar. In particular the introduction of bus services in 1953 saw waterway communication lose its relevance as less and less people used the Mar as a transport facility.
iii. Previously the down town area used to have toilets with chamber pots or just an open pit wherefrom night soil was removed almost on daily basis by scavengers, for fertilizing the neighboring ‘malyari’ lands. However, in 50’s and early 60’s these malyari areas were being lost at a rapid pace to housing which resulted in decrease in demand for night soil. This and the introduction of ‘flush’ type fittings in toilets (but without a proper disposal system like a septic tank, sewer) made matters worse for the Mar and other water bodies. In absence of a proper disposal system these toilets directly opened onto surface drains along the roads and paths. All these surface drains eventually discharged into Jhelum, the Mar and three other waterways Khuls (Tsunth, Sunhri, Kut). Because of its now very low discharge this impacted the Mar most and soon the Mar in which people used to bathe, turned into an open sewer.
iv. One of the important uses of Nallah Mar was to irrigate lands particularly downstream of Safa Kafal. As said above, with the malyari land being lost to housing, the demand for irrigation water from Mar decreased which again resulted in Mar losing its importance.
While all this was happening nobody seems to have noticed that the Mar had started to decay. After losing its importance as a means of transport, after suffering reduced velocity and discharge from Dal Lake on account of lower head, and with the flow of sewage and night soil into it continuing unabated no one seems to have realize that we were losing the Mar. Soon people started dumping their solid waste/garbage in it which instead of getting washed with the flow remained deposited in the Mar. Over a period of time this accumulated and became only bigger and larger. It is said that even Srinagar Municipality staff started to use this as a garbage dumping site.
By late 60’s the Mar had been choked to death, had become defunct and was stinking. People living along the Mar found the stench unbearable and people living in adjoining areas were regularly falling sick. It was at this stage that the government started to think on how to address this issue.
Understandably there were a lot of deliberations at government level on how to activate the Mar. Apparently no serious attempt was made to excavate and clean up the Mar possibly because of the magnitude of work, the finances involved and also lack of suitable mechanical excavating equipment. In absence of appropriate mechanical equipment some feeble attempts were made to excavate and remove the debris but they were not successful.
It is said that within the engineering community numerous discussions were held to find solutions to revive the Nallah Mar. Er Ghulam Hassan Khan is said to have proposed construction of ‘Egg Sewer’ – a covered / enclosed sewer in the shape of an egg – possibly an acknowledgement of the fact it was no longer practical to revive Mar to its original state. Er Mir Ghulam Rasool proposed and implemented installation of massive pumps near Nawa Kadal / Guzarbal to take water from Jhelum and pump it into Nallah Mar to activate it but this attempt was not successful. Possibly this solution failed because it was implemented in isolation without removing the debris from the Mar before pumping water from Jhelum.
Because of the filthy in the area the incidence of various diseases was high and it is said that people around ran a campaign to fill up the area and relieve them of disease and foul smell emanating from the Mar.
Subsequently the decision was taken to fill it up. Some engineers like Er V D Zadu, had cautioned about the disastrous consequences of the decision but they were overruled. A provision was made to provide for pipes in the central verge for storm water but unfortunately this was not done properly and at the time of inauguration of the road itself back flow took place.
With the outflow link to Nallah Mar lost, the waters in Brari Numbal Lagoon, falling between the Dal and Nallah Mar, became stagnant and the Lagoon started to decay. It was only recently that the cut from the Lagoon to Jhelum, near Monga Raza, Fateh Kadal was done that has given some hope of revival of the Lagoon.
The construction of the ‘Nallah Mar Development Project’, as the project for filling of Mar was named, was inaugurated by G M Sadiq, Chief Minister, on 28 Jun 1971. The Project was estimated to cost Rs 5.36 crores and was to be completed in four years. Interestingly, the project was not executed through PWD (R&B) but through Irrigation & Flood Control Department, the agency with the responsibility to keep the water ways live rather than bury them. And the rest is history.
Iftikhar A Drabu is civil engineer from NIT (previously REC), Srinagar.