CHITRAL: The residents of Chitral have started clearing the roads of snow and rehabilitating the water supply schemes on self-help basis amid alleged government apathy.

Yaqoob Khan, a former union council nazim of Karimabad valley, said that the increasing frequency of natural calamities and the irregular pattern of weather triggered by the climate change had left the residents with no choice other than to restore the facilities on self-help basis.

He said that spirit of voluntarism was gaining momentum among the young people of all the vulnerable valleys of Chitral where natural hazards disrupted life leaving them without the facilities of drinking water, electricity, roads and irrigation water.

He said the volunteers trained by different non-governmental organisations rushed to the troubled spot soon after the occurrence of a calamity and embarked upon search and rescue operations, thereby saving precious lives.

Mr Khan said that the villagers had developed the strong conviction that only and only they could help themselves and waiting for the government or others for the restoration of facilities was useless and increased their sufferings.

Mohammad Hussain of Garam Chashma said that every year, hundreds of residents of the valley repaired the 40-kilometre road from Shoghore village to Gobore on their own.

He insisted that if the residents waited for the government to come and do it for them, then it would never happen.

Hussain said that the residents of every village wasted no time in starting work on the restoration of the disaster-hit infrastructure, while many NGOs did provide them with bare minimum resources in cash or in kind.

“Due to the red-tape, the finance department takes almost a year or so to release funds to the relevant department, which then calls the tenders and awards contracts,” he said, sharing his experience as a former member of the district council.

He said that strengthening the union councils and the local support organisations would greatly help in mobilising the necessary resources to the residents of the affected villages in restoring their infrastructure.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2025