Flash floods: Demand to rehab Chitral’s roads, irrigation system

CHITRAL: The residents of Upper Chitral on Wednesday asked the government to take swift action for the rehabilitation of roads and irrigation damaged by glacial lake outburst flooding (GLOF) in various areas of the district.

Talking to The News, social figure Fayyaz Ahmad and other elders of Yarkhun Valley said that floods in various seasonal streams had washed away roads, bridges and destroyed irrigation system. They said the roads and irrigation channels were destroyed in Shorr Koch, Pawar, Onawach, Yarkhun and other areas by flash floods caused by GLOF.

The crops, vegetables and fruit orchards are feared to be destroyed if the government did not restore the irrigation channels.

The elders said that the Chitral-Yarkhun road, Chitral-Broghil road and roads in Rojzpawar, Shorr Koch were washed away by gushing floodwater and had been closed for traffic.

The residents of flood-hit areas, they added, could also face a shortage of edibles, medicines and other necessary items if the destroyed infrastructure was not reconstructed. Fayyaz Ahmad said that they were striving hard on a self-help basis to restore the irrigation system so the farmers could irrigate their crops but added that it was not possible for them to reconstruct the destroyed channels without the government’s help. He said that there was a possibility of more GLOF due to the rising temperature in the region.