The extent of devastation caused by the recent flash floods could be gauged from the fact that one can not travel for more than 15 kilometres on any road in Chitral district. The floods caused widespread destruction throughout the district, starting from Arandu in the south to Baroghil in the north stretching over about 400 kilometres.

This was the piece of information I gave to one of my acquaintances in Lahore who wanted to visit Chitral in his jeep a couple of days after Eidul Fitr. The floods had started in Chitral two days before Eid when Broze village was hit, resulting in the collapse of a bridge and death of four people, instantly blocking Chitral-Peshawar road. The same night saw the destruction of another village named Shali on Chitral-Garam Chashma road where seven houses were washed away and the following day Kuragh village in upper Chitral witnessed an unprecedented flood that destroyed a jeepable bridge and part of the Chitral-Booni road.

After a short respite of only two days, reports about floods started pouring from other parts of the district which continues coming even today. The floods have brought untold miseries to the people of Chitral as all types of infrastructure have been devastated, limiting mobility of the residents and depriving them of even drinking and irrigation water besides giving birth to severe food shortage. The residents of all the 34 sub-valleys remained confined to their villages for over two weeks as almost all the roads and suspension bridges were the worst-hit throughout the valley.

Executive engineer of communication and works division, Chitral, Maqbool Azam told Dawn that except proper Chitral town there was hardly any village that had not been hit by the disastrous flood. He said that the current spate of floods affected all the branch valleys and played havoc with all types of physical infrastructure, paralyzing life. He said that 50 suspension bridges were either washed away or rendered unfit for use and 20 roads to different valleys were also damaged which disconnected different villages from each other.

Except proper Chitral town there is hardly any village that has not been hit by the disastrous floods. The recent spate of floods has affected all the branch valleys and played havoc with all types of physical infrastructure, says Engineer Maqbool Azam

About the rehabilitation process in the communication sector, he said that roads of only valleys had so far been opened temporarily to traffic, while the three major roads (Booni road, Garam Chashma road and Bumburate road) were given to Frontier Works Organisation for restoration. He said that chief engineer Dawood Shah had opened his camp office in Chitral to supervise the restoration work and efforts were underway to make more bridges and roads usable for traffic. A retired professor, Shamsun Nizar Fatimi, said that the network of roads, bridges and irrigation channels was the ‘lifeline’ of the district. He feared starvation in the affected areas if the ‘lineline’ was not restored on war footings.

Both the prime minister and KP chief minister visited the district in the aftermath of the floods and while addressing the affected people in Kuragh expressed their ‘determination’ to expedite relief work and restoration of the damaged infrastructure.

MNA from Chitral, Shahzada Iftikharuddin, has expressed his dissatisfaction over the pace of work as promised by them, saying that any delay in the restoration work would create serious problems for the whole population. He said that the Rs500 million each announced by the prime minister and chief minister were yet to be released despite the passage of about two weeks. The lawmaker termed the restoration of infrastructure built by the community as the major issue, saying that the gigantic work was beyond their capacity. He said that estimated Rs1 billion would be needed initially for the restoration link roads, bridges, micro hydropower stations, water supply schemes and irrigation channels in Chitral.

PPP MPA from upper Chitral, Sardar Hussain Shah, said that the restoration work was going on at a snail’s pace and feared acute food shortage in the area if the roads and bridges were not restored. He complained that not a single officer of the public health engineering, irrigation, district council, agricultural engineering and local government departments bothered to visit the worst-affected areas of his constituency. He said that the sub-division level officers of the departments were stationed in Chitral.

Mr Shah apprehended that the problem of food shortage would aggravate in case of further delay in reconnection of link roads with the major roads.

A rights activist, Niaz A Niazi advocate, said that all people in the flood-hit areas were facing food shortage and the situation might aggravate if the roads and bridges were not restored anytime soon.

The floods had also washed away thousands of irrigation channels throughout the district as a result of which all vegetation, including vegetables and rice and maize crops, is withering away. The restoration is beyond the capacity of the local people and will need proper and planned assistance from the government. The destruction of crops, fruit trees and vegetable fields will destroy the economy of the people who derived their sustenance from them.

Anwar Baig, a development worker, said that the people of Garam Chashma valley had switched to growing potato crop after abandoning wheat and maize crops due to suitability of the soil for potato. The bumper crop of potato over the years in the valley had brought about economic prosperity to the people, but this year it was feared that thousands of the farmers of the valley would get nothing as either their fields had been washed away by flood or they would not be able to transport their produce to the market due to the closure of Garam Chashma road.

He said that farmers of beans in Karimabad valley and that of apple in Booni and Brep would meet the same fate due to inundation of their fields and gardens by floodwater and closure of roads.

The tourism industry has been hit severely by the flash floods as mobility of tourists is not possible without restoration of roads, while the major tourist resort of the district – the Kalash valley of Bumburate – is among the worst-affected places where hardly any hotel remained unaffected. Tash Khan Kalash said that the flood had washed away the beauty and charm of the valley, leaving almost nothing for the tourists.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2015

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