PESHAWAR: The people living near the Budhny stream have expressed the fear that monsoon floods will wash away their houses if government fails to construct protection walls in the area.

They urged the provincial government to take timely steps to ensure protection to people in the area as increasing encroachment could cause serious problems both for the local residents and government.

Talking to journalists here on Monday a jirga of the area led by Amjad Khan, Fawad Khan, Hafeez Khan, Rafiq and Zahid Khan said that encroachments had reduced the size of the stream. The flash floods in 2010 had inflicted heavy losses on the residents of the area, they said, adding government should take a lesson from it.

The previous provincial government of Awami National Party, the jirga members said, allocated millions of rupees for construction of protection walls and removal of encroachment but could not complete the process. They feared that monsoon rains could damage to their houses and properties.

The provincial government, they said, had promised to resolve the longstanding problem but it failed to keep its words despite lapse of one year. They said that government should construct protection walls in Pashto Kallay, Char Guli, Charsadda Road and Khushal Park as the areas were at high risk.

The jirga members said that flash floods in 2010 had also destroyed the areas close to Peshawar city. The same could occur in the coming monsoon if timely steps were not taken, they added.

The government, they said, was duty bound to carry out a survey and start work on the protection walls so that those could be completed before the first week of July. None of the officials of the departments concerned bothered to fulfil their responsibility, they alleged.

Besides the houses, the jirga members said, there were many shops, markets and filling station in the area which were facing the danger of floods. They said that in the past the floods had caused huge losses to the residents of the area but the previous government did not compensate them.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2014