Flood-affected areas of Chitral get clean drinking water

CHITRAL: With natural disasters including earthquakes, floods and landslides ravaging parts of the remote valley of Chitral over the past few years, efforts by a UN agency have helped fortify the community and provide clean drinking water.

In this regard, a water supply scheme for flood-affected areas of the area was inaugurated in Chitral on Wednesday.

“Around 53,000 children die each year from consuming contaminated water in the rural and urban areas of the country,” said United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Chief of Office Charles Nzuki while inaugurating the scheme.

He added that water plays a pivotal role in every healthy, clean society. However, he said it was unfortunate that in the rural areas of Pakistan, only a fraction of the society has access to clean drinkable water.

But, he said, they were working with the local community and the government in Chitral, which has suffered from floods and earthquakes, by allocating funds for the reconstruction of water channels and roads to affected areas.

“We have constructed around 2,000 feet of protection wall to guard against soil erosion and further devastation of the community’s land and property and have provided over Rs40 million for the reconstruction of Angarghoon water supply scheme in the flood-affected area,” Nzuki said.

While talking to the media, Dr Inamullah Khan said that they had initiated a “WASH project” to raise awareness among the flood-affected community about the importance of hygiene and had trained midwives along with lady health workers for improving the environment at local health facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2017.