Risky detour: Child drowns as cable car plunges into Swat River
Two injured children rescued by local villagers; construction work on bridges remains suspended.
SWAT:
A young child drowned and two others were injured when a manual cable car broke down and plunged into Swat River, near Kalam, on Saturday.
Witnesses said that three children were travelling on a wooden cable car that connects Aryana and Peshmal villages across the Swat River when one of its metal cables snapped and its cabin plunged into the river. Six-year-old Rashid, son of Nazir Ahmad of Aryana village, drowned while two other children were injured. The injured children were rescued by local villagers.
The cable car was installed on a self-help basis by local villagers after a bridge connecting the two villages was washed away by floods in 2010. The cable car serves as the lifeline for over 6,000 people in eight villages in the area.
Hazrat Mohmmad, a resident of Aryana village, said the cable car was installed using funds pooled in by local villagers. “We only had money to install a manual cable car, which is difficult to operate and is not as strong as a motorised one,” said Mohammad. He said that the cable cars such as this one, which were also installed in a number of areas in Swat where bridges were swept away by floods, have been prone to accidents. So far four women and a child have been killed and 40 others injured in different incidents, he added.
Soon after the floods, the National Highway Authority (NHA) started to reconstruct three broken bridges on Swat River to reconnect hundreds of stranded villages, but the structures are yet to be completed.
“We have approached the member of provincial assembly from our area and other concerned departments’ officials around two dozen times but all we get are verbal assurances,” said Zor Bacha, a social activist from Aryana village. “The problem is that we are poor people and are of no importance to the government,” he remarked.
Aryana village is known for its fertile lands and around 90 per cent of its inhabitants rely solely on agriculture. Due to lack of a bridge takes, locals have to endures heavy costs to transport items across the Swat River.
Mian Je, a local farmer, said he has to pay Rs150 to transport a single bag of vegetables across the river using the cable car. “We have lost around Rs10 million this season alone due to such transport issues,” he claimed.
Moreover, as a majority of the schools are located in Aryana village, students from the neighbouring villages are daily forced to cross Swat River using the dangerous chairlift. “A few bridges that allow a route to the other villages with schools are too far away, so we have to cross the river using the lift despite the risks” said a local of Peshmal village.
Sub-divisional magistrate of Bahrain and Kalam tehsils, Mohammad Naeem, admitted that work on a few bridges in Swat has been suspended, but said it is because NHA has stopped giving funds to the contractors. “The matter is in the notice of the district coordination officer of Swat as well as the army and they are making efforts to resume the construction work, said Naeem. “I am hopeful that the construction work will be resumed soon,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2012.
A young child drowned and two others were injured when a manual cable car broke down and plunged into Swat River, near Kalam, on Saturday.
Witnesses said that three children were travelling on a wooden cable car that connects Aryana and Peshmal villages across the Swat River when one of its metal cables snapped and its cabin plunged into the river. Six-year-old Rashid, son of Nazir Ahmad of Aryana village, drowned while two other children were injured. The injured children were rescued by local villagers.
The cable car was installed on a self-help basis by local villagers after a bridge connecting the two villages was washed away by floods in 2010. The cable car serves as the lifeline for over 6,000 people in eight villages in the area.
Hazrat Mohmmad, a resident of Aryana village, said the cable car was installed using funds pooled in by local villagers. “We only had money to install a manual cable car, which is difficult to operate and is not as strong as a motorised one,” said Mohammad. He said that the cable cars such as this one, which were also installed in a number of areas in Swat where bridges were swept away by floods, have been prone to accidents. So far four women and a child have been killed and 40 others injured in different incidents, he added.
Soon after the floods, the National Highway Authority (NHA) started to reconstruct three broken bridges on Swat River to reconnect hundreds of stranded villages, but the structures are yet to be completed.
“We have approached the member of provincial assembly from our area and other concerned departments’ officials around two dozen times but all we get are verbal assurances,” said Zor Bacha, a social activist from Aryana village. “The problem is that we are poor people and are of no importance to the government,” he remarked.
Aryana village is known for its fertile lands and around 90 per cent of its inhabitants rely solely on agriculture. Due to lack of a bridge takes, locals have to endures heavy costs to transport items across the Swat River.
Mian Je, a local farmer, said he has to pay Rs150 to transport a single bag of vegetables across the river using the cable car. “We have lost around Rs10 million this season alone due to such transport issues,” he claimed.
Moreover, as a majority of the schools are located in Aryana village, students from the neighbouring villages are daily forced to cross Swat River using the dangerous chairlift. “A few bridges that allow a route to the other villages with schools are too far away, so we have to cross the river using the lift despite the risks” said a local of Peshmal village.
Sub-divisional magistrate of Bahrain and Kalam tehsils, Mohammad Naeem, admitted that work on a few bridges in Swat has been suspended, but said it is because NHA has stopped giving funds to the contractors. “The matter is in the notice of the district coordination officer of Swat as well as the army and they are making efforts to resume the construction work, said Naeem. “I am hopeful that the construction work will be resumed soon,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2012.