Peshawar-“Listen to the watermill, through the livelong day; how the clicking of the wheel, wears the hours away,” so runs a poem discussing the simple and serene aura of watermills producing flour while crushing grains on the riverbanks.
While these traditional watermills have dwindled with the advancement of technology and urbanisation, some areas still house them. Jarandu Kalay on the outskirts of Peshawar is one such area where one dozen watermills have stood the test of time and serve as an attraction for people. The location is also named after these mills and is known as Jrandu Kalay (watermills’ village) in Mathra Union Council of Peshawar.
Watermill, called Jaranda in Pashto language, uses a big stone, which moves round by the force of gushing water from a canal or river. Wheat or any other kinds of grains fall, through some pipe or passage, under the stone, which grinds the same into flour.
The area located on the outskirts of Peshawar has 15 watermills built on a canal from River Kabul during an era when British rulers governed the subcontinent.
It merits a mention here that many people like the flour from these traditional watermills because they believe that flour of modern flour mills is not good for health since the flourmills separate different elements like suji (semolina), red flour, etc. However, the flour of watermills is considered fit for health as it contains all these different and healthy ingredients.
A 50-year old man, working at one of these watermills, said that these mills had been working since the time of his forefathers, who also used to crush grains for flour.
“When someone brings us grains for crushing at the mills, I divide the grains into four parts. I crush three parts and give its flour to the owner, while leaving one part for myself as my wage for crushing the grains,” he added.
These watermills run all the year, except a month when water flow in the river is very low and unable to run the heavy stones of these mills.
Talking to The Nation, a schoolteacher from the area Ashfaq Khan said that in the year 2010 when floods wreaked havoc, these watermills remained safe from destruction although several houses were destroyed in the area then.
“These watermills exist even before the inception of Pakistan and are owned by local people, who also had employed labourers on daily-wage basis. Also, some watermills have been leased by their owners to other people,” he added.