AFTER almost 10 days of floods that wreaked havoc on the infrastructure, houses, crops and other essentials, the upper Swat remains in the grip of darkness, distress and misery. The affected people are looking for food and shelter, but there is no organised distribution of ration and no serious effort towards the restoration of commercial routes.

The repair of Bahrain bridge took nine days which finally connected the western part of Bahrain to the eastern one. The rest of the upper region on the road to Kalam has been destroyed, and people have to travel more than 30km, all the way from Kalam to Bahrain, to buy basic ration. The physical and psychological agony is beyond description.

The main Kalam road is disconnected at more than 10 different locations. The nearest to Bahrain is Lambat, only a kilometre away from Bahrain, where an 80-metre road strip has been destroyed and remains inundated. It can be rebuilt in a single day, but this has not yet happened.

People, like their counterparts in other parts on the main Kalam road, climb up rocky mountains, and walk on extremely difficult paths with stuff on their head almost every day since the scale of devastation subsided. Yet, no local or provincial politician has ever appeared on the scene to see how life is stumbling along these days. There has been no assistance provided to the local population, and no serious effort has been made to reconnect the scattered areas. Besides, there has been no electricity since the day the first wave of flood hit the area.

The people of Kalam are in dire need of food, but nothing is being done in this regard. Children, women and the elderly are seriously affected, but the worst is the fate of patients who have to go through misery in the absence of any treatment facilities. Every day is a misery for them while all their families can do is to watch them helplessly, hoping for some miracle to happen. No practical measures have been taken, and there does not appear to be any plan afoot in this regard.

The main Bahrain bazaar bridge, which is the major repair undertaking in the area, is itself an indicator of how serious the authorities are about putting life back on track. The wooden bridge is

based on trees from the nearby forest. The administration could have easily built a steel bridge instead of the wooden one, but even the repairs are makeshift in nature.

A few excavators have been working on the roads, but the work is moving at a pace that would put the proverbial snail to shame. The people of upper Swat are waiting for the promises to be fulfilled that were made by the higher officials in the early days of the floods regarding food, roads and electricity. Nobody quite knows when people in Swat will be able to live a normal life again. Keeping in view the slow pace of work and the general sense of apathy prevailing in local and provincial administrations, the journey seems to be a rather long and uncertain one.

Usman Torwali
Swat

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2022