Over 200 trout fish farms were washed away by the recent floods in Swat’s regions of Madyan, Utror, Chail, and Mankial and other areas of the Malakand Division, including Upper Dir, and Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The flash floods near the Madyan trout hatchery swept around 50,000 kg of trout into the rivers within a few minutes last week.
The local department of fisheries initially reported that Madyan’s trout hatchery had a large stock of trout that was supplied to several regions of the country, including Kalam, Dir, Kohistan, Peshawar, and Punjab. However, the floods destroyed the hatchery and hundreds of fish were washed away.
Furthermore, over 20 private fish farms and riverbank eateries in Chail were instantly inundated, resulting in losses worth millions of rupees. The floods also devastated Malakand Division’s infrastructure, including the fish industry and a modern Trout Culture and Training Center.
Deputy Director (DD) of the Trout Culture and Training Center Swat, Jaffer Yahya, affirmed that the building of the training center in Madyan has been destroyed by the floods.
Students from all across the country researched various species of fish in Swat, including trout, at the training center.
Millions of golden trout from Turkey and thousands of local ones have also died in the disaster. They can only survive in cold waters and not in muddy and dirty floodwaters. Most of the farms’ secondary supply channels were choked by sand and mud deposits from the floodwaters, which killed the fish.
A private farm owner in Madyan, Muhammad Rasheed, revealed that thousands of trout were taken away by the floods.
He revealed that the locals used to acquire the fish from the government at Rs. 1,000 a kg and sell it for Rs. 1,500-2,000.
Rasheed also remarked that he and numerous other traders had set up trout restaurants beside their farms for tourists from all over the country, and added that Malakand’s fisheries industry businessmen have incurred losses worth hundreds of millions because of the floods.
He was also concerned that the fishing community would have to face extreme challenges to restore itself after the calamity.
Via Express Tribune
