CHITRAL: The Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) will build a small hydropower station to provide electricity to 70 households of the remote Baroghil village, bordering Afghanistan.

Talking to Dawn, SRSP district programme manager, Tariq Ahmed, said that the area bordering the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan, was without electricity and faced numerous problems in the absence of power as kerosene oil was beyond villagers’ purchasing power.

He said that due to high altitude no trees could be grown in the village and people depended on small shrubs and dried grass for heating purposes.

Mr Ahmed said that SRSP chief executive officer, Shahzada Masoodul Mulk, had sanctioned the 30 kilowatts micro hydropower station after project’s feasibility was determined.

He said that work on the site would be launched during the current season, providing the much awaited electricity facility to the villagers from the coming winter.

He claimed that it was the first ever development project launched by any non-government organisation in the mostly inaccessible village.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2014