300 children at risk of diseases in Kalam

SWAT: More than 300 children of Kalam valley are at high risk from water-borne diseases and starvation. People of Kalam and adjoining villages are in dire need of clean drinking water and food. Local ANP leader Malak Qowat Khan, along with tribal elders, visited Kalam, where he threatened the government with a long march to Islamabad.

Talking to reporters, Khan said, “There is shortage of food and medicines in the villages of Utror, Matiltan, Gabral, Badai Sera and Usho. More than 300 children are at risk due to water-borne diseases but there are no medicines available.”

“If the government is unable to provide us with food and medicines, then it should restrict itself to only reconstructing the infrastructure. And we will arrange for food ourselves” he said.

“In the Holy month of Ramazan, people are starving.  If the government does not provide us with food, thousands of families will stage a long march to Islamabad and commit collective suicide, the responsibility of which will fall on the government,” Khan threatened.

To escape starvation hundreds of families from Kalam and Upper Swat have already migrated to Mingora on foot. And more are moving out.

Nazir Ahmad, a resident of Kalam whose family migrated to Mingora, said, “We came on foot through very difficult terrain , walking for three days and passing  through a chain of hills, but if we had not come, we would have died of hunger.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2010.