Possibilities of lesser degradation and more effeciency in natural resources management in FATA

A few days back an article was published on this blog about water scarcity and rain water harvesting in FATA, some of the friends have shown deep interest in the matter and seem enthusiastic to do some thing. Their enthusiasm is highly appreciated, but at the same time i want to realize to them some possible methods of rain water harvesting in FATA.

1. 
   
   
   Small scale household level rain water harvesting is to be promoted in addition to communal water harvesting.



2. 
   
   
   In communal rain water harvesting schemes indigenous and local material must be used. Specially those stones should be used in construction of structures which are lying in the flood streams.



3. 
   
   
   No explosive material to be used for collection of stones, specially in FATA, as stones of various sizes are freely available in each stream.



4. 
   
   
   While constructing rain water harvesting structures slope of the catchment area, and volume of the structure should be taken in to consideration.



5. 
   
   
   Possibilities of future flooding and possible damages down stream should be minimized through proper designing.



6. 
   
   
   In addition to rain water harvesting some measures for increasing surface vegetation both up stream and down stream must be facilitated to help in mitigating the global climate changes.

These are recommendation for people who want to work on rain water harvesting. Now for the developed countries all the environmentalist should build a pressure to allocate significant budget for research on recycling of the carbon that they emit regularly. The scientists should be motivated for exploring possibilities of directly traping down the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and processing them for other uses such as fertilizers, or fuels even.

What we need for mitigating the global climate changes is increasing awareness, taking small steps ourselves, and advocating with the most powerful actors who are causing degradation. In this way we can make the water, air and planet more sustainable for our coming generations.

Rain water harvesting, future of FATA

The global climat changes across the globe has created a bunch of risks for the natural resources and life of many species. No doubt the developed countries have caused and will continue to cause the major harm to natural resources, but the most to be affected by the depleting natural resources are and will be the world's poorest regions. Major portion of the FATA has been affected by the conflicts for quite a long time and developmental activities and normal life are on the hault. Terrain of FATA is mostly hilly which was covered by forest in the initial days, the exploding population needs for fuel, and livelihoods have made majority of the hills as barren. The steap slopes in the of the mountains and absence of vegetation cover on them has reduced the recharge of underground aquifiers significantly. Underground water is over exploited and as a result the underground water table is going down day by day.
FATA as a blessing in disguise has less polloution due to scarcity of industry, and the earth cover provides efficient filtration, which makes the quality of the drinking water very good. in more than 80% of the FATA areas the quality of underground water is very good, but it is depleted day by day.
The adjacent areas of FATA are also speedily moving to water scarcity issue and with in coming decade they too will be facing water scarcity issues.
Now it is the time for people of the world to help FATA people and people of the FATA to help world population in slowing down the degradation of the natural resources.
Rain water harvesting in the area is the only solution to save the future of the coming generations. Harvesting of rain water will not only help in recharge to underground water but will also help in small scale to medium scale reforestation of the area. In the meanwhile concepts of controlled grazing could be introduced in the region to help FATA people achieve sustainable livelihoods. Rain water harvesting in FATA will also decrease the risk of the floodings downstream in parts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and other parts of Pakistan.

A great Journalist is separated from us today

FATA which is traditionally considered to be a backward area, has never faced dirth of talented people because of non existance of them, but has definitly faced the scarcity of intellectuals and talented people due to their assasination and creation of scenarios where they can not perform according to their potential. Previous day when i received the news of the assasination of Mukarram Khan Atif, i could not believe it, the reason being his smiling face and energetic image i had in my mind. He was among the very few Journalists of FATA, who could speak at forum and could present the case of FATA. I have known him for the last many years and to be very honest, i have never seen such a genuine journalist in FATA with genuine reports and sound analysis. I have also heared to him on various forums, he never talked for the sake of talking, he was very focused and to the point speaker.
He belonged to Ghazi Beg area of Mohmand Agency, and a few years back shifted to setteled area of Shabqadar district Charsadda. He used to report for various newspapers, T.V and radio channels.
He was shot dead when he was offering his Maghrib prayer in a local Masjid. Mukarram Khan Atif has left us, but his memories will be there. A poet in Urdu has said " hamyn Khabar hay ke ham hyn Cheragh-e-Akher-e- Shab. Hamary baad andhera nahin, Ujala Hay " [I know that i am like the late night lamp, (which usually is tired and short on energy) but i am happy that after me there is light, not the darkness, as night too will come to an end with my end] May his soul rest in peace and May Allah Console his family.

What Does Jirga mean in FATA

Term Jirga is so widely used in Pukhtoon society that many times the non pushtoon people get confused over its meaning. Jirga is an indespensable part of costums and traditions of FATA. In this article I am going to discuss various aspects of Jirga in context of FATA. With regard to its popular notions in media Jirga is a sort of traditional Jury which operates in FATA for quite as long period as the culture of FATA. Traditionally it operated even before the British colonial influence of 19th century and the established acceptance imply that the history of Jirga in Triabl belt is thousands years old. But the term Jirga is used in other meanings as well in FATA and Pushtoon areas.

In recent days various forms of Jirgas are being practiced. Broadly speaking the Jirgas of 21st century in FATA could be divided in to two broad categories. 1) State supported Jirga and 2) People supported Jirga.

Speaking in the formal legal terms the State or government supported Jirga is a jury of at least two local maliks appointed by the Political Administration (Like district administration in other parts of the world, but farmost powerful than other parts of the world) to investigate the causes of various disputes and recommend some corrective measures. Membership to these sorts of Jirgas is granted by Political administration and an elite class can avail this membership who have better relationship with political administration. These Jirgas usually participate in decisions on issues like ownership of properties, murders, tribal conflicts. These Jirgas operate for long periods of time and try to decide the matter in a way, which is liked by the political administration.

People supported jirga in terms of legal proceedings ,too is a jury which is appointed by two opposing parties to discuss the points of difference between them. This Jirga too is comprised on two or more than two members. To make the decision binding on both the parties this Jirga takes some bond from both the parties in form of some valuable assetts. Traditionally the bond used to be in form of Guns like AK-47, klashinkove or other armours but the bond in form of land or money too is practiced in various areas of FATA. In case of violation or non respect for the decision of the Jirga, the guarantee, or Bond is considered the ownership of the jirga members. The bond given to Jirga is called " Wak" in local terms, meaning the Authority, consent to decide on their behalf. Authority given to members of the Jirga is of utmost importance and unless and untill both the parties give their consent and trust to the Jirga, the Jirga does not start working. In decisions of this type of Jirga, Imprisonment is never a decision because the members dont have authority over the prisons. Mostly the decision of this sort of a Jirga relates to compensation of some type.

Historically the compensations imposed by these Jirgas some times used to be inhumane like giving the offenders female relatives to the sufferers family in marriage for compensation. This concept is called " Swara" and is still being practiced in some parts of FATA and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, but is also replicated in non Pushtoon areas such as Sind, and Punjab with different names.

Jirga is also used for a forum of exchanging views and reaching to a more appropriate solution of various issues. It could be considered as an assembly at village or street level where the local residents sit together and express their views on various matters.

Other form of Jirga is a sort of accepting some ones own error and saying sorry to other party. This type of Jirga is also called "Nanawaty" for example party X did some harm to party Y,,, now either party X thinks that the prolonged conflict might lead to bigger losses,,or it simply consider that they have ethically done wrong, they ask some elders of the village to go with them and in their presence they say " sorry" to the party who suffered a loss. This sort of Jirgas have served the prevention of blood shed on many ocassions.

Another sort of Jirga is for asking favors from other party. e.g. A boy of one family loves the girl of another family, the boy will ask his parents or elders to take a jirga to the girl family and ask for her "hand". These sorts of Jirgas are the most romantic ones and many times are successful in combining the love marriages and arranged marriages. If the girl's family agree the marriage at the same time is both love and arranged marriage.

What does it mean when you say Gender Mainstreaming in FATA

Gender Main streaming is a concept which started being practiced even in the developed countries in late eighties. After decades of working there still is a big gap of income between the genders, and there still are courageous womenin USA andEurope that ask that the is criteria for wages still is what is between your legs ? Gender mainstreaming should aim at empowering the women and leting them have a role in decision making and protecting them against all sorts of violances. Unfortunately some gender practitioners in Pakistan have taken the concept as copying the ways of other people and for gender mainstreaming they are portraying men and women as enemies of each other. Many times the gender main streaming concept is mixed with feminist ideas while gender mainstreaming is not about feminism or masculinities, it rather is understanding both genders need and addressing them in a culturaly sensitive environment.
I have heard from many workers of organizations working on gender mainstreaming that people dont listen to them in the gross root settings. How come ? if you are working for the benefit of some one and they are not listening to you ? At least for me it is strange. And the next step of those workers is they say that people dont listen to us because they are "Ignorant" " Back ward" Illitrate". This sounds funny, we are going to guage peoples understanding and stupidity with our own guage which has never been proved scientifically correct. The people we consider"Ignorant, illiterate and stupid" are producing food for the " civilized citizens" but the civilized citizens consider them ignorant.
People dont listen to these people because these people have repeatedly cheated them, have never took in to consideration their culture and have never capitalized on the existing sociial institute that can play a big role in elimination of gender discrimination and violance.
Those practitioners that believe in revolution but can not bring it, should now change their mind, and start working on evolution. If an ideas has not worked for decades and we are still stuck with that idea, it means there is some problem with that idea. Can we rethink on this, because women, girls and children need our attention and we have to contribute to the solution of their problems. If we are sticking to a concept which does not work, it means we are sticking to it at the cost of those people who can be better off if we rethink and plan some workable solutions for them. This is a food for thought, those people who understand the culture and traditions of FATA, they know what could be utilized with in the existing cultutal system of FATA to eliminate Gender Based violance and discrimination against them.

FATA Early Recovery interventions being planned

The humanitarian community and Government of Pakistan have planned the early recovery response for four conflict affected areas of FATA i.e. Mohmand, Bajaur, Orakzai and South Waziristan Agencies. As the situation in FATA did not deteriorate overnight, so the response too should be a comprehensive one and should address the issues in FATA with a wholistic approach.
People of FATA are suffering because their land has become the battle ground for various international forces and now this is the responsibility of all the population of the world to help FATA people come out of the sense of deprivation and miseries.
Development and stability is just a dream in absence of education, awareness and justice and therefore all the plans for FATA should address these issues. To resolve these issues a comprehensive plan is required to let the men, women, boys and girls of FATA decide for their own on how to rehabilitate their livelihoods, agriculture, Livestock, infrastructure and of course houses etc.
Main Stake holders in FATA are the people of FATA, they should be taken on board through out the process.