The cost of power
Many people in Pakistan are only just learning of Pakistan’s rich Buddhist heritage through sites like Taxila, the ancient Greco-Indian city one hour outside of Islamabad. However, there are other significant sites that are more remote and not as known, but equally significant in their historical significance. Recently, the United Nations Agency for Education and Culture warned the Government of Pakistan that Taxila could be placed on the list of “World Heritage in Danger” or even lose its world heritage status if Pakistan does not begin to pay serious attention to protecting the site from ruin and neglect.
Farther north of the country, thousands of years of Buddhist history is at threat by what some experts consider to be a needless and expensive project: the Diamar-Bhasha dam. The dam site is situated directly along the Silk Route, the ancient trade route that connected Central Asia, China, India, and Persia through centuries of trade and commerce, as well as a cross-pollination of ideas, culture, and religion. Along the ancient Silk Route and the upper Indus River, the area bordering Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is home to several Buddhist stupas as well as tens of thousands of inscriptions, in the Brahmi, Tibetan and other ancient languages indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau. These are preserved carvings on rocks made by travellers over many centuries. But much of these inscriptions will be submerged once the Diamar Bhasha dam is up and running. This is, without a doubt, one of the most significant archeological sites in all of South Asia– and it is endangered.
Professors at the Wilfred Laurier-University in Waterloo, Ontario, Dr Jason Neelis and Dr Ali Zaidi share their expert opinion with The Express Tribune on the conflict of developing a hydropower station at the cost of losing Pakistan’s ancient heritage. “There are pressures that create conflicts between the value of preserving cultural heritage sites – or basically even the way of life of the people who inhabit these areas where the reservoir will be formed, which is resulting in a tremendous displacement– and the other needs for power, especially hydroelectricity, are more broadly needed to control water resources which Pakistan has in abundance in the most glaciated region outside of the polar ice caps. The challenge then is to balance the longer term control of this valuable resource which is going to be even more valuable in the future with a preservation of the past and knowledge of the past as well,” said Dr Neelis.
Pakistan has real challenges that have to be met when it comes to energy production, but increasingly experts point to how with every passing year, projects like the Diamar-Bhasha dam incur diminishing returns due to the increasing practicality of solar and wind.
He also pointed out a seldom discussed externality of what we call “tourism” or “development”, in remote communities. Intrusion by foreigners into previously secluded and self-sufficient communities has had an impact on the traditional role of women in some of these places. “A couple of years ago, we did a conference and we had some colleagues who had done work in Northern Pakistan. What they demonstrated was that development in Pakistan's north, especially in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, actually had some unanticipated negative social consequences. They demonstrated how, prior to a road being constructed to a particular village, the women had more freedom because it was an isolated village. The women would go into the fields, they would do their daily work without the threat of strangers being there and so on.”
In many respects this is an echo or repetition of a pattern we have seen across the country, and even across the world. As has been reported, women in the Indus delta have met a similar fate. According to older members of the fishing communities and their late parents, women of the Indus river delta’s ancient fishing community used to be independent and an essential part of the local fishing economy by weaving the unique nets specially designed to not catch small fish, late on through the de-shelling of shrimps, and even going out fishing on their own, but with the destruction of the mangroves, real estate development, and reduced river flow caused by upstream diversions and dams, have disrupted and fractured the social structures of these communities, forcing many women into traditional and restricted urban life.
This ongoing erosion of heritage—both tangible and cultural—is compounded by a broader lack of public awareness inside and outside Pakistan. Dr Zaidi, who has ties to Pakistan, acknowledges what many people in Pakistan likely feel regarding our lack of exposure to our heritage. “As a Pakistani growing up in Canada, I'd heard about the Silk Route and heard about Marco Polo travelling across the Silk Road going to China, but I did not actually know about the Buddhist and Tibetan legacy in what is today northern Pakistan. It wasn't until I travelled to Skardu, Gilgit and so on that I came to become more aware of this. And for example, the Manthal Buddha Rock is an amazing remnant of human history that should be more well known, but it isn't.”
All of this points to a deeper connection between heritage, civilisation, cultural memory, and preserving life on Earth. The Indus river is nothing short of the source of life in Pakistan, not only in terms of sustenance for present biological life, but also in terms of preservation of historical inheritance, for not only does it impact agriculture downstream when there are upstream diversions, but it also risks submerging vital historical sites. Arguably, a genuine commitment to protection and sustained preservation of all of the above is a function of a certain healthy doze of pride in regional, linguistic, and civilisational inheritance. It is always going to be rare for some people to become academics, linguistics, and archeologists to devote their lives to the study and preservation of culture, for its own sake. However, the best way to institutionalise an effortless evolution and continuation of heritage is to invest in self respect within communities, so that they know that their civilisational identity is not entirely borrowed from elsewhere, but also has indigenous roots.
Dr Neelis emphasises the following, “It varies from province to province, in terms of the legal structures and resources in place, to be able to carry out the protection of these sites. We work closely together with the Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism Secretariat, which oversees the Department of Archaeology. In recent years, we've also developed close relationships with the Water and Power Development Authority, which is tasked with building the dam and mitigating the loss of cultural heritage with a cultural heritage management plan”. A good sign, indeed, that there is a mandate to mitigate cultural heritage, but given the history of neglect of cultural heritage in Pakistan, it is essential that citizens do not become passive in their hope for protection of these sites.
However, water expert Hasan Abbas argued the futility of the mega project: “In the 21st century, you don’t need hydropower. Not only is it more expensive than solar and batteries, it's also environmentally destructive and not people friendly.” He said, “I can predict with almost certainty that by the time Dasu Dam and Diamar-Bhasha Dam are up and running, their electricity cost will be so high, there will be no buyer. These guys will be in trouble because they are missing the trends, and if you miss the trends and make the wrong investment, you’re in trouble.”
If we are neglecting easily accessible places like Taxila, an hour from Islamabad, the seat of power, and with little industry and population within Taxila, and with ample resources, then how can we be sure that a remote dam would be slowed down or reconsidered for the protection of sites that even fewer people know about?
History is the best teacher, and if these ancient sites serve a lesson, it is this: some facts of life remain permanent over thousands of years, no matter how much the times, technologies, and governments change.
The Express Tribune reached out to the Minister for Water Resources, but did not receive a response in time for publication.