CHITRAL, Nov 12: Residents of the Sonoghur village are living under precarious conditions in tents and facing exposure to cold winter winds as the government has failed in rehabilitating them in adequate shelters.

More than one hundred houses, located in the upper part of the district, were washed away in a flood last July.

Many residents had taken refuge in a village across the river and tents were provided by the government, but no adequate arrangements were made to protect them from the fast approaching winter.

The area receives more than five feet of snow during winter and one can only imagine the hardships the residents will face in the coming days, the victims told Dawn.

The residents complained of not having warm clothes, insufficient of fire wood and lack of light inside their tents.

The flood had uprooted scores of trees in the village, due to which the price of fire wood had increased to Rs180 per 40 kg which is beyond the reach of most locals.

A shelter comprising two rooms costs about Rs150,000 but the government or any NGO had not yet paid a single penny to the victims.

The main problem in constructing a house is the shortage of timber in the area for which a permit from the forest department has to be secured, the process of which usually takes almost a year to complete.

Residents say they have been urging the government to provide them with timber permits on special grounds but as yet nothing has been done.