Dasu people urge Wapda to launch uplift schemes

MANSEHRA: People affected by the 4300 megawatts Dasu hydropower project have complained that the Wapda has miserably failed to execute Rs4 billion development schemes which it had pledged with the World Bank under its public welfare programme for the local community.

“The Wapda, through the agreement with the World Bank and people affected by the dam in 2016, had pledged to make schools, health facilities, water and sanitation, roads and other development schemes to improve the living standards of

locals but failed to honour its

commitments,” Malik Sar Mukhtar, a former contender for the provincial assembly, told reporters in Dasu on Friday.

The affected people led by Mukhtar said that the period of the first phase, set by the World Bank for the completion of over Rs4 billion development schemes, expired in 2019.

“The Wapda installed only street lights in Kamila bazaar and deputy commissioner’s residential colony and none of the health, educational, road and water and sanitation schemes have been executed so far,” said Mehboobur Rehman, another elder.

He said that the Wapda, under the agreement, was also bound to upgrade the existing civil hospital Dasu for better healthcare facilities but to no avail and people were without even basic health facilities there.

Speaking on the occasion, a former contender for provincial assembly Mian Gul said that potable water supply schemes for Dasu, Kamila, Jalkot and areas Teyal were also part of that agreement but work on them had not been launched so far.