The village that is no more

SWAT: Tawheed Colony, a tiny village situated along the stream flowing from Elum Valley, is the latest victim of the floods that swept Swat in the past few days.

In the aftermath of the flood that has reportedly killed hundreds of people, Tawheed Colony has become a ghost town.

There is hardly any structure left standing in the village after landslides and lightning wreaked havoc here.

A small community of about 30 houses and shops, Tawheed Colony was built along a stream flowing through Marghazar Saidu Sharif and Mingora. Though community members weren’t generally well off, they managed to sustain themselves and were happy.

That all changed when the floods washed away 15 houses last week, and left the rest barely habitable.

A resident, Shamim Bibi, tried to salvage usable items from the rubble of her home amidst tears, as she sobbed: “My husband has worked day and night in the scorching heat of Oman for 10 years. He saved every penny to build this house and still works abroad, but everything has been snatched away from us.”

Pointing to the debris, she cried: “What should I collect from this rubble? My husband will die if he finds out about this.”

Another resident, Ramazan, said he was still expected to pay back the loan he took to build his house, even though the house had been washed away. Criticising the authorities, he said: “This is all the government’s fault. This area was struck by a light flood three months ago which damaged the village’s protection wall. We asked the authorities again and again to rebuild the wall but all in vain.”

About the role of the local administration he said curtly: “I am sure there is no government and local administration here. At least I don’t know of any administrative body here.”

Amjad , a shopkeeper, had taken a small loan from his relatives to open a shop in the village. It too was swept away. “The shop represented all my assets and the income of my family. I cannot even find traces of my shop,” he said.

Tawheed Colony is bare and desolate now, with children scurrying through the streets looking for homes that have been washed away. But no one from the government or local administration has bothered to visit it yet.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2010.