CHITRAL: Representatives of civil society organisations have called for making the infrastructure of roads, bridges, water supply schemes and irrigation channels resilient to the natural disasters in Chitral.

Rehmat Elahi, chairman of Chitral Community Development Network (CCDN), an umbrella organisation of 21 development entities, regretted that the government had yet to take into account the need for adaptation and resilience while designing and planning infrastructure for the hilly and disaster-prone areas like Chitral.

He said the relevant departments, who were based either in Peshawar or Islamabad, prepared project designs without considering the topography and environment of the target area.

“The plains of Peshawar valley and rugged terrains of Chitral are treated at par by the planning departments, neglecting the fact that the geographical conditions and parameters were quite different. Building designs for plain areas are not fit for hilly ones,” he said.

Mr Elahi said the choice of location and alignment for building infrastructure was equally important in a hilly area so it could withstand floods, avalanches and other natural hazards.

He added frequency of natural disasters in Chitral during the past two decades and the colossal loss inflicted on the physical infrastructure had exposed the inherent flaws in the system where resilience to the natural disasters was neglected altogether.

Former MPA Syed Sardar Hussain said in 2015, flash floods caused a huge loss of Rs16 billion to infrastructure in Chitral. He said in every development project of worth Rs100 million and above, an environmental impact study was carried out by Environmental Protection Agency, but so far the authorities were oblivious of the prime aspect of resilience of a project.

Sardar Hussain said in the face of climate change phenomenon triggering natural disasters in Chitral, each project should be planned keeping in view topography of the district.

STRIKE CONTINUES: The employees of Chitral tehsil municipal administration continued strike for the second day on Tuesday over non-payment of salaries for last sixth months.

TMA employees’ union president Bahader Khan and other leaders said they were passing through mental agony due to non-payment of salaries. They said their electricity connections had also been disconnected over non-payment of dues.

The employees vowed to continue strike till payment of the outstanding salaries.

Tehsil municipal officer Rahmat Hanif Khan told Dawn that the higher authorities had been contacted to release the grant for payment of salaries to the striking workers.

Lower Chitral deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Khan said the matter had been taken up with the government and the grant was expected to be released within a day or two.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2023