Cable car helps to fulfil daily needs
A single cable car functions across the Swat River connecting Kabal tehsil and Barikot.
SWAT:
To fulfill their daily needs, thousands of people are flocking to a single cable car that functions across the Swat River connecting Kabal tehsil and Barikot. The floods have spread their lethal arm around the infrastructure in Swat, where it uprooted 42 major bridges along with hundreds of smaller ones and washed away more than 50 roads thus cutting hundreds of villages from one another.
Military helicopters are also regularly ferrying food and medical supplies to remote areas and towns whose communication links have been cut off.
Gul Mohammad, a resident of Kanju told The Express Tribune that it was his third day waiting but to no avail. “I spent two nights here along the river bank and still standing in the long queue but it seems today it is not possible to get my turn,” Mohammad said. “I want to bring some food to my children.”
Sher Ali Khan and an elderly man who was holding foodstuffs complained: “This is our third day, we spend day and night here in the open sky, no food is here to eat so we go two kilometres away to fetch food and then come back. I have purchased food for my children but I don’t know whether it will reach them or not.”
Another man, Yousuf Khan, who was waiting in the queue, told The Express Tribune that people who have sources get their way. “A lot of people are taken by some access without turns and in front of our eyes. However, if we object, the organisers expel us from here,” Khan said. “We are having extreme difficulties. Really, we wish to commit collective suicide here. The government authorities really don’t care for us. Where should we go? Where can we record our complaints?”
Regarding elected persons Khan said: “When they need votes they can reach to every door in any circumstances but in this time of calamity, no elected person came to us. Thank God that the Army is present in Swat otherwise all of us would have starved to death.”
A social worker who was serving water among the people told The Express Tribune: “These people are facing great troubles as they lie here in the open sky, some patients have died and some have been swept away by the river but no responsible person came to see them. The government should have at least made arrangements for their food, water and shade. More such chair lefts should be built.”
On the other hand the provincial government has said that the works and services department has estimated Rs2.2 billion on the construction of the 42 major bridges in Swat Valley but they have not developed a clearcut strategy regarding the reconstruction of it. Fifteen days passed since the area was hit by the devastating flood, but the government has failed to install even a temporary bridge in any part of the Swat district.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2010
To fulfill their daily needs, thousands of people are flocking to a single cable car that functions across the Swat River connecting Kabal tehsil and Barikot. The floods have spread their lethal arm around the infrastructure in Swat, where it uprooted 42 major bridges along with hundreds of smaller ones and washed away more than 50 roads thus cutting hundreds of villages from one another.
Military helicopters are also regularly ferrying food and medical supplies to remote areas and towns whose communication links have been cut off.
Gul Mohammad, a resident of Kanju told The Express Tribune that it was his third day waiting but to no avail. “I spent two nights here along the river bank and still standing in the long queue but it seems today it is not possible to get my turn,” Mohammad said. “I want to bring some food to my children.”
Sher Ali Khan and an elderly man who was holding foodstuffs complained: “This is our third day, we spend day and night here in the open sky, no food is here to eat so we go two kilometres away to fetch food and then come back. I have purchased food for my children but I don’t know whether it will reach them or not.”
Another man, Yousuf Khan, who was waiting in the queue, told The Express Tribune that people who have sources get their way. “A lot of people are taken by some access without turns and in front of our eyes. However, if we object, the organisers expel us from here,” Khan said. “We are having extreme difficulties. Really, we wish to commit collective suicide here. The government authorities really don’t care for us. Where should we go? Where can we record our complaints?”
Regarding elected persons Khan said: “When they need votes they can reach to every door in any circumstances but in this time of calamity, no elected person came to us. Thank God that the Army is present in Swat otherwise all of us would have starved to death.”
A social worker who was serving water among the people told The Express Tribune: “These people are facing great troubles as they lie here in the open sky, some patients have died and some have been swept away by the river but no responsible person came to see them. The government should have at least made arrangements for their food, water and shade. More such chair lefts should be built.”
On the other hand the provincial government has said that the works and services department has estimated Rs2.2 billion on the construction of the 42 major bridges in Swat Valley but they have not developed a clearcut strategy regarding the reconstruction of it. Fifteen days passed since the area was hit by the devastating flood, but the government has failed to install even a temporary bridge in any part of the Swat district.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2010