Rising tide: Surging Swat River puts hundreds of villages at risk

With protection walls destroyed by last year’s floods, villages on both river banks are under threat of flooding.

SWAT:

The Swat River is back to its boisterous self, swelling up with the surge in heat, putting hundreds of villages on either side at risk.

The protection walls along both sides of the river were wiped out by last year’s floods. As summer temperatures keep soaring, snow on mountains is melting fast, threatening vulnerable areas.

A temporary road connecting Kalam with Madyan came under water after recent increase in water level. Due to this, the entire Kalam tehsil was cut off from the rest of the country.

Attaur Rahman, who lives in Kalam, told The Express Tribune that river water had inundated the road near Chikari.

“Hundreds of families who were going to Kalam are stranded here,” he said.

More than 10 houses in Malak Nagar in the Kalam Valley are now under water. The flooding has caused other people to vacate their houses.

“This is a real mess; the government must build protection walls along both sides of the river,” Mohammad Nabi, another resident, said.

“There is no denying that we need protection walls along both banks of the Swat River. Until they are rebuilt, neighbouring areas will be at high risk,” said Zahid Khan, president of the local hotel association. He added, “Strangely, despite the release of funds, work for the restoration of Kalam Road has not started yet.”

Dozens of markets located at the Shahdara Watkey side of Mingora have been flooded by the river water, destroying valuable goods.

“Every now and then, when Swat River overflows its banks, water enters into our shops. This is caused by the absence of retaining walls which were washed away by the floods last year,” said, Kamran Khan, a shopkeeper in Shahdara.

Zubair Torwali, a local activist and educationist from Bahrian, a nearby hill station, said, “I don’t know the logic of people who have just now started work on restoration of roads. They could have done it earlier when the flow of water was not so intense. They are only wasting time and money.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2011.