Several flood-hit Chitral areas still inaccessible

PESHAWAR: A former tehsil nazim of Chitral Sartaj Ahmad Khan on Monday said that his district was facing flashfloods, glacier outburst and torrential rains that had caused havoc in the valley.
Speaking at a news conference here at the Press Club, he said that over 30 people lost lives and infrastructure had been damaged. He said many parts of the district were still inaccessible and population had been left at the mercy of nature. He said the dwellers needed clean drinking water, food, electricity and health facilities.
Chitral, he said, had always been prone to seismic and flood disasters, while areas of MolKoh, Torkoh, Yarkhun Garam Chashma, Reshun and Sonoghar were vulnerable to glacier outburst and over 300 places across the district were threatened with to land sliding.
He demanded 30 megawatts of electricity free of cost from the Golen Hydel Project to Chitral and called for save forests, water reservoirs.Sartaj said coal should be introduced as energy source in the district, Laquified natural gas (LNG) depot be set up at Chitral, Kabul River should renamed as Chitral River and the district be given its water rights like the province is getting from center.