PHERAN DIARIES – 24
By: Dr Sanjay Parva ([email protected])
The 42-kilometre Flood Spill Channel from Padshahi Bagh to Wular is Kashmir’s silent guardian. Built more than a century ago, it remains the valley’s safety valve against Jhelum’s floods. But like all water bodies, it silts up. Regular dredging is the only way to keep it alive. Dredging, however, produces mountains of soil and silt. The real question is not how to take it out, but where to put it.
For Agriculture and Horticulture
The soil of flood channels is alluvial, rich in minerals, and full of organic residue. Spread on paddy fields, it renews fertility and lifts yields. Carried to karewas, it improves moisture retention in apple, almond, and walnut orchards. Mixed in nurseries, it becomes a natural medium for vegetables and flowers. Tulips, gladiolus, and marigolds could thrive on the same soil that once threatened to choke the channel.
For Infrastructure and Housing
Not all dredged material is soft. Much of it is sandy and gravelly. Instead of being dumped, it can strengthen rural roads as sub-base. It can be compacted into embankments or shaped into eco-bricks and paver blocks. What the Netherlands uses to build parks and housing, Kashmir too can use to lift its villages and towns.
For Environmental Restoration
The same soil can raise low-lying land in flood-prone villages, giving families safer homesteads. It can reinforce wetland banks and lake shores that are eroding. On embankments, it can be shaped into green belts planted with poplar, willow, or medicinal herbs. In this way, what leaves the channel returns to the valley as protection and growth.
For Cycling and Walking Corridors
Dredged soil can also serve the people directly. If compacted properly, it can form the base of broad cycling and walking tracks along both banks. Imagine a 42-kilometre corridor where children ride, elders walk, and families gather. Physically, it would make Srinagar fitter. Emotionally, it would reconnect people with the channel, turning fear into belonging. The same soil that once trapped floods could now support life, health, and leisure.
For Revenue and Policy
Dredged soil is also an economic asset. Sandy material can go to brick kilns. Fine silt can be packaged for nurseries. Auctions and partnerships can generate revenue for the Flood Control Department. A Soil Utilisation Policy is needed – one that classifies dredged soil, identifies uses, and ensures fair distribution. With such a policy, dredging shifts from being an expense to being an investment.
From Waste to Wealth
The world has already learnt this lesson. In the Netherlands, dredged soil has reclaimed land. In China, it has restored lakes. In America, it has rebuilt wetlands. Kashmir too must act. Every truckload of soil pulled from the Flood Spill Channel is not waste – it is wealth. It can feed our farms, strengthen our roads, green our embankments, and build our cycling tracks.
Conclusion
The channel itself is our insurance against floods. But the soil it sheds can be our insurance for growth. Dumped on the roadside, it remains a problem. Directed with vision, it becomes an opportunity. The choice is simple: either let dredged soil lie useless, or send it to where it belongs – in fields, orchards, wetlands, roads, and cycling paths. The answer to floods could also be the answer to our future.
An author, a communications strategist, Dr Sanjay Parva was a debut contestant in 2024 Assembly elections
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