AKAH’s incomplete project makes village more vulnerable to floods
DIZG (UPPER CHITRAL): The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) has made the residents of Dizg more vulnerable to flash floods by not only leaving a protection wall along Dizg Gol incomplete but also raising a 13-foot-high embankment on the other side of the stream to protect another village.
Protection wall on Khruzg side.Local residents told ChitralToday that officials of the agency who had initiated the project about two years ago remained unavailable for about a year.
Qazi Zahir Shah, Izat Ali Shah, Ali Zahoor Khan, Zakir Uddin, Danadar Khan, Ghafar, Farman Nadir and others of Dizg village complained that the agency had endangered their life and properties by ill planning and non-completion of the embankment on their side of Dizg Gol that frequently floods in the summer months and has already brought destruction to Dizg and Khruzg villages.
The residents said AKAH started work on the construction of a 600 feet long and 13 feet high embankment along the stream in Dizg side starting near the house of Qazi Zahir in Aug 2017. Another protection wall measuring 1,000 feet long and 13 feet high was to be built on the western side of the stream to protect Khruzg against floods.
The work in the Dizg side continued till Dec 2017 and by that time only 100 feet of wall could be raised out of the 250 feet that was to be completed in the first phase. However, after Dec 2017, the project in Dizg side was abandoned altogether.
On the other hand, the wall on the Khruzg side continued and is now near completion.
With the construction of the wall on the Khruzg side, now the passageway of the stream is tilted towards Dizg and in case of a flood the Dizg village consisting of 100 houses would be washed away, the residents feared.
They said the locals had passed a resolution asking the authorities of AKAH to send a team to inspect the vulnerability of the village and complete the work without any further delay. However, so far their request has been not taken seriously.
Officials of AKAH in Chitral could not be contacted for comment on the abandonment of the protection wall project in Dizg and why the embankment to protect Khruzg village was completed that endangered the other village.
ڈیڑھ سال تک اہل دیزگ کی خاموشی افسوسناک ہے۔ جس وقت دیزگ کی طرف بند پر کام روک دیا گیا تھا اس وقت انہیں آواز اٹھانا چاہیے تھا تاکہ اج گاؤں کے لیے خطرے کی گھنٹی نہ بجتی
اے کے اے ایچ
کو اس اہم عوامی مسلے کی طرف فوری توجہ دینے کی ضرورت ہے