Rafting record set in Indus River

MANSEHRA: A team of professional rafters that set a record of rafting in the Indus River from its head to tail for the first time was given a red-carpet welcome by the locals here on Monday.

People from different walks of life - educationists, lawyers, doctors and mountain trackers, attended the event.Wajahat Malik, the team leader, said at the reception arranged in his and his team’s honour by the Saibaan Development Organisation here on Monday that they had made history after rafting the Indus River from Tibet to the Sindh dangerously and adventurously.

Sharing experiences of the Indus Expedition, Wajahat Malik said that his team, which was joined by the Pakistan Navy’s sailors from Tarbala Dam onward to Sindh, passed through the dangerous points.

“I have noticed that the water level in the Indus River has significantly decreased because of climate change and some time we moved by foot to reach deep water,” he said.He said it was an encouraging point for him and his countrymen that the United Nations had declared the Indus River as a human species and it would be treated as a human being and protective measures would be initiated to save it from the environmental hazards.

Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi, the Saibaan’s chief executive officer, said in the event that the government should take the pollution as a serious issue for the flora and fauna found in rivers.“The Indus, Siran and Kunhar rivers, which pass through the heavenly destinations of Darband, Siren valley and Kaghan valley and the rest of the district, are being polluted rapidly but the government is yet to take measures for their protection,” he said.

Alfaizi said that sewerage lines were directly put into those rivers but the government was yet to initiate proactive measures.Assad Mehmood Lodhi, the additional deputy commissioner of Battagram, also gave away the souvenir to Wajahat Malik for a historic adventurous Indus Expedition.