TVA on the Indus:
KENWORTHY, LEONARD S.
Pakistans' Thal Development Authority is a TVA ON THE INDUS By Leonard S. Kenworthy IN A COUNTRY like Pakistan where most development projects are still either on paper or "under construction,"...
...A partial victory over the desert has been won...
...With this in mind, 29 "gardens" have already been set up...
...More and more people are seeking admission to the villages and towns, and the price of land in the Thal has already risen...
...Each of the Thal villages contains about 50 families, in most cases persons who lived together in India, so that they carry on as a unit...
...The staff includes a Canadian and an Australian, though the director and deputy director are Pakistanis...
...Much of the livestock and equipment were furnished by Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand...
...This may be cloth-weaving, furniture making, the knitting of sweaters and colorful shawls, or the carving of lamps from rock salt or gypsum...
...All this progress has been made since 1949, most of it in the last three years...
...Electricity is also available—something unheard-of for most of these people...
...There had been numerous surveys of the area before 1949, and work had actually begun in 1942, but the war forced a halt...
...Twenty-nine large plots have been developed in different parts of the Thal to furnish seeds, trees and plants and to serve as experimental agricultural stations...
...Eventually, it is expected that each of the six cities will contain about 25,000 inhabitants...
...Anyone in Pakistan is eligible for such a home, provided he makes a down payment of 15 per cent of the cost and promises to pay the entire sum within ten years...
...In addition to recreation provided by the inhabitants, such as dances and festivals, there are occasional film showings by the Government...
...Jauharabad will have a sugar plant by the end of this year, and Leiah is to have one soon...
...Many have ridiculed the project as sinking money in sand, but now these critics are becoming fewer and less vocal...
...Some engineers feel that it would be better to attempt more thorough salvaging of a smaller area instead of spreading over such a vast space...
...There are charges of favoritism in selecting settlers and of shady financial dealings...
...Five central market towns have already been constructed, and a sixth is in the planning stage...
...During the first years, he does not have to make any payments, and he is given 40 years in which to pay for the land and house...
...Some of the refugees have found it difficult to adjust to life in this arid land...
...Last fall, a normal school for girls was started in the same city...
...Eventually, each of the six chief areas of the Thal will have a social-service officer and there will be 60 "lady health visitors...
...Schools have been started...
...Nevertheless, this is one of the most promising projects in all of Pakistan today...
...Thus, Liaquatabad and Bhak-kar have textile mills which are already at work...
...Then came the flood of 7 to 8 million refugees from India in 1947...
...A hundred cows, 700 sheep and 500 chickens comprise the Farm's initial livestock and poultry...
...Lady health visitors" have been making the rounds of the villages...
...A modern hospital is functioning now at Jauharabad, and another is under construction at Quiadabad as part of a plan to have one in each of the major towns...
...News is sometimes obtained over the village radio, set up in a central spot for everyone's convenience...
...He receives 15 acres of land and a house, water for his fields, and loans from the Government for his implements...
...Plans call for the school, mosque, hospital and other general buildings to be erected along the radius of the semi-circle or on the fourth side of the rectangle...
...Some were resettled on land vacated by the Sikhs and Hindus when they left for India, but there was not nearly enough land to accommodate them...
...He had had experience as Deputy Commissioner of Lahore and Chairman of the Lahore Improvement Trust...
...In each of these modern towns, there is to be a major industry, using the products of the surrounding territory...
...Each Chak or village is arranged either in a semi-circle or on three sides of a rectangle...
...A few bushes and clumps of grass and reeds recalled a dim past when the Indus River flowed through the center of this area and made it productive...
...Three hundred fifty of the best water buffalo available are already installed in large, model barns and are being used for experimental breeding purposes...
...It is Pakistan's TVA on the Indus...
...They also serve as experimental grounds for everything from rubber plants and strawberries to mulberries and mangoes...
...Its few inhabitants were isolated from the world, living in mud-brick huts and thatched hovels, and fighting for a marginal existence against the desert sand...
...But this is not all that has been done in the Thal...
...Another is the plan to build two small houses in each village for teachers in order to augment their pitiful salaries and attract teachers to the region...
...Two textile mills are already in operation, two sugar mills have been started, and other smaller plants have been erected...
...Nearly 300 miles of irrigation canals have been completed, spreading out over an area of a million and a half acres...
...Education has not been neglected in the Thal...
...Quia-dabad is to have a woolen mill in the near future...
...Today, conditions are different...
...Jauharabad is already a booming city of 5,000, and Liaquatabad has nearly twice that number...
...Their homes are built of red brick and contain three rooms plus kitchen and bath...
...The people in the new towns are mostly non-refugees...
...A large modern Commonwealth Livestock Farm has been set up and is already helping to improve the water-buffalo, sheep and poultry supply of the Thal...
...Even the name "Thal" means "wasteland" in the ancient Sanskrit tongue...
...Two hundred fifty thousand refugees have been resettled in 610 new villages, and an additional 25,000 refugees and other Pakistanis have moved into five Mandi towns or modern market cities...
...Of course, there has been opposition...
...One unique development has been the allotment of ten acres to each village school for gardens and demonstration farming...
...The Thal Development Authority, an area of 5 million acres, is gradually being transformed from a desert into a fertile expanse suitable for refugees from India and pioneering Pakistanis...
...Around the village is a plot reserved for the common grazing grounds...
...Under his guidance, seemingly insurmountable obstacles have been hurdled...
...Sixty-three schools are already functioning, including a technical high school in Jauharabad...
...Nothing is more needed in the entire Thal project than trees and plants...
...Pakistans' Thal Development Authority is a TVA ON THE INDUS By Leonard S. Kenworthy IN A COUNTRY like Pakistan where most development projects are still either on paper or "under construction," it is encouraging to find one that is really under way...
...Then the Thal project came to life and was placed in the hands of Zafur Ul-Ahsan, an able administrator trained in the Indian Civil Service and himself a refugee...
...One of the most impressive developments has been the Commonwealth Livestock Farm, where 1,500 of an eventual 15,000 acres are already under cultivation...
...They are needed to hold the soil and prevent further erosion, to hold water for the crops, to provide shade against the penetrating rays of the sun, and to provide fuel, so that the cow and camel dung can be used for fertilizer instead of fires...
...The problems connected with the Thal project are, of course, enormous...
...These are scattered all over the project and are used to provide seeds, trees, plants and flowers for the villagers and city people...
...Cotton, sugar cane, wheat, gram and other crops have been planted in the 327,000 acres brought under cultivation by canal water...
...To be eligible for resettlement in the Thal, a refugee has to have owned land in India for which he has not received compensation...
...Five years ago, the Thal was a sparsely settled section of the Punjab, flanked on the east by the Jhelum River and on the west by the Indus...
...In many of these villages, some cottage industry is already functioning...
Vol. 38 • March 1955 • No. 11
