The Kaghan valley which is one of the country’s most scenic attractions for local and foreign tourists has suffered heavy losses in the current spell of torrential rains. I visit Kaghan valley every summer to enjoy its natural beauty. This time all that greeted me there was the devastation brought by the floods to the picturesque valley.

Just reaching there demanded a Herculean effort as the rains have played havoc with the infrastructure, damaging or destroying roads, bridges, electricity lines over a vast area.

Many roads that survived the deluge were found blocked by landslides. The damage to physical infrastructure is extensive and hardly any patch of metalled road, bridge or culvert along the valley remains intact causing prolonged disruption in the flow of traffic and isolating many tourist spots like the Lake Saiful Maluk.

Some bridges, like the one near Kewai, were swept away clean by the raging waters. Villages situated at a lower level along the Kunhar River were inundated and the mud houses in them collapsed.

People of the area said it rained almost continuously for 45 hours.

The downpour stranded hundreds of tourists in Naran Valley and the jeep track leading to the heavenly Lake Saiful Maluk was lost under a vast sheet of water, cutting off the scenic spot from Naran.

Power supply system was badly damaged and the whole region remained without electricity for many days.

The valley remained sunk in darkness due to damage to power houses and tourists and other visitors to the valley were stranded for days with no vehicle to reach them across the broken roads and bridges.

Many villages in low lying areas adjacent to Kunhar River which flows along the road from Balakot to Naran were swamped by the flood waters while landslides caused heavy damage to houses, blocking roads and creating deep pools of muddy water on stretches of plain land.

A bridge near Kewai was washed away by the heavy floods which blocked all kind of traffic on this road. It was temporarily repaired to allow stranded vehicles to go across.

The jeep track which leads to the Lake Saiful Maluk has been badly damaged putting it out of reach of tourists many of whom come to Kaghan just to see this heavenly lake.

A villager of Naran described the rains as the worst spell since the cloud burst of 1992. His house was damaged when the Kunhar broke its bank flooding low lying areas.

Another visitor from Okara Rana Sajid said that he and his family came here to enjoy but due to rains they couldn’t go anywhere.

He said that his wife wanted to see Lake Saiful Maluk but she could not realize her dream.

A small hotel near Kewai built above the stream to attract visitors was totally washed away by the rain water.

The Kunhar River is a raging waterway that starts from the 11200 feet high Lulusar Lake and affords challenging sailing to enthusiasts of white water sports.

It is awesome when it swells washing away everything in its roaring path. The first victim is always the road that runs along its bank.

In its present state of extreme disrepair it would need money and time to make it traffic worthy. Kewai, Mahandri, Malkandi, Jareed and Naran also suffered much damage as the rains caused heavy landslides.

There were a number of accidents as the downpour caught many on the road unawares.

Two tourists died and 10 were injured on the track to the famous lake.