Disconnected: Shaheenabad Bridge - down and very much out

The only connection between the village and Saidu Sharif fell apart leaving life handicapped.

SWAT:

“I used to love school, but now I hate it as I cannot cross the stream on foot.”

Shaheenabad, a village in Union Coucil Saidu Sahrif, just along the stream flowing from Elum valley, was totally destroyed by the 2010 floods; the only bridge connecting the village to Saidu Sharif was wiped out, complicating life for more than 4,000 inhabitants of the region.

“Whenever it rains, the stream blocks our route, meaning we can’t even go to school. But our teachers don’t accept this as an excuse and punish us, even though it is a genuine problem,” Saeeda, 14, told The Express Tribune with teary eyes.

Locals have repeatedly asked the government and non-government organisations to undertake essential reconstruction, but in vain. “We have knocked at the door of every concerned department; elected body and non-government organisation but no one lent an ear to our pleas,” said Alamgir, an activist in Shaheenabad. The locals said that the bridge is indispensible and that they will keep appealing to the government to reconstruct it.

A majority of villagers work in Mingora and Saidu Sharif. Gulshan, a 52-year-old widowed mother of four, goes to Saidu Sharif daily to work as a cleaning lady. She has stumbled and hurt herself twice while crossing the stream.

She told The Express Tribune, “When the water-level increases in the stream on rainy days, I cannot cross it and lose that days’ wages.”

The problem is not restricted to commuters, as village shop owners face problems managing their stocks up their shops properly.

We are fed up of this place, said Fazal Wahab, a shopkeeper in Shaheenabad village, “The government has been neglecting our needs since the 2010 floods, and we are completely cut off, even though our village is right next to Saidu Sharif.” He said the lack of a bridge means that they are charged double fares fare delivery to their shops.

About 46 link-bridges and 200 smaller ones were washed away by last year’s floods, after which the government claimed to have restored all communication links, yet Shaheenabad remains cut-off, neglected by both the government and humanitarian organisations.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2011.