KOHAT: Flash floods have washed away water courses constructed in Muhammadzai area here for diverting water to fields and orchards.

Residents complained that both the concrete and sand walls constructed for water diversion went with the raging water triggered by monsoon rains, and demanded that the same method should be used as in the construction of route taking water Toi area to the Tanda Dam.

Similarly, they said the fault in the dike of the Gandiali DAM had been exposed by the recent rains when water started overflowing and inundated the village and the Rawalpindi highway. They said due to encroachments in the shape of housing colonies along the banks of the Kohat-Toi stream by influential land grabbers water entered homes causing losses to people. The most vulnerable area was the Hafizabad colony.

Some people have even grown guava orchards on the way of the water channel squeezing its space, because of which water overflows during rains submerging agricultural land.

The people have demanded launch of an anti-encroachment drive to clear the sides of the nullah of illegal structures. They also demanded raising embankments of Gandiali dam.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2015

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