About 250 trout farms of the district were badly affected due to August floods
Rafiullah Khan
Last year devastating floods have badly affected the famed trout farms of the district, inflicting huge financial damages on the owners by washing away several tonnes of fish.
Fazal Rabi, a resident of Madyan area of the district said that he had two trout farms which brought him Rs 2.3 million in income to him annually. However, he said that both of his farms were destroyed in August floods following the torrential monsoon rains. He said that besides inflecting huge financial losses on him, the floods also rendered six of helpers unemployed.
“All the fish farms were built at some distance from the river as safety precaution; however, last year floods were about thrice to that of 2010,” he said. He said that floods completely destroyed the fish farming industry of the region. “We are earning millions from these farms,” he said.
Fazal said that now several months after the floods, they have received no assistance from authorities. He said that he ran a good business in Malaysia for about 15 years; however, I brought my saving to Pakistan and invested in this business,” he said.
Fazal said that his business was completely ruined in the floods.
He said that KP fisheries minister Mohibullah Khan also belonged to Swat and despite this fact they have received no help from government.
On the other hand, KP fisheries department officials said there were 250 private and two government trout farms in Swat and the floods have destroyed 80 percent of them while remaining 20 percent have been partially damaged.
Abrar Ahmed, a deputy director of fisheries department said that Swat district produced 1500 tonnes of trout fish every year and about 1000 tonnes of trout were washed away in floods. “Fish farms have incurred Rs 13.5 million in losses while government has lost Rs 354 million and land owners losses amount to Rs 1 billion,” he said.
However, he said that the trout farms could not be built away from the river. He said that fish farms were built away from the river side after carrying out assessment of 2010 floods; however, August floods were beyond the estimates; therefore, there were more damages.
He said that Madyan trout culture training center was the largest training center of Pakistan and it was destroyed along with a hatchery. Abrar said that they have shared the damages assessment report with authorities and government was trying to arrange funding from ADP, PSDP and also submitted proposals with the USAID.
He said that they were hopeful of a positive outcome of these efforts in about six to eight months.
However, on the other hand, economists of the view that the Swat fish farms were playing a major role in the meeting the fish needs of the province. Besides, they said that these farms had also played crucial role in province economy and their destruction was likely to baldy affect the province economy.
Dr Mohsin Ali, an economist from Swat said that Swat resources have a major role in province economy. He said that the trout business thrived along with the tourists’ influx to the district.
However, he said that due to floods damages, fish production has been badly affected and local needs were being not met.
He said that 38 percent of local populations were associated with farming and fish farming.
Besides, he said that fish farms played an important role in area’s economy as not only large number of tourists relished trout but it was also supplied to the other parts of the province.
“Swat trout plays an important part in meeting province food requirements,” he said.
Dr Mohsin proposed that the government should give soft loans to the area’s fish farm owners so that they could revive their businesses.
Trout farms were introduced in the district in 1960s by the late ruler of Swat and with the passage of time hundreds of farms were developed in the area. However, destruction of these farms in August floods has not only rendered large number of people jobless but also badly affected the fish production.
