Karez System of Irrigation

Karez System of Irrigation

Subject – Agriculture

Context – The Taliban are set to overtake Kabul; but an expert believes they will spare the age-old Karez system of underground aqueducts in the country given its importance

Concept –

• This is a system of underground vertical shafts in a gently sloping tunnel that is built from an upland aquifer to ground level, is in fact present in several countries.
• Some historians and archaeologists have attributed people in the southeast Arabian Peninsula as the first developers. Others, however, ascribe it to the ancient Persians.
• The Qanat / Karez system, wherever it was developed, soon spread to many Persian, Arab and Turkic lands. It even came to the Indian Subcontinent during the 800-year-old Islamic Period.
• Thousands of miles away from West Asia, the ancient peoples of Peru’s Pacific coastal desert also independently developed a similar system called ‘puquios’.
• The system was brought in the Indian Subcontinent during the Bahamani Sultanate, founded by Alaudin Bahman Shah. It later broke into five other Sultantates: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar.
• Water in them does not evaporate and is also filtered till it comes to the surface. There is no depletion of the aquifer since excessive use is impossible. Its maintenance is also low-cost.