Fazle Yar Khan
This is second time I am going to apprise the relevant authorities of the contravention regarding the ongoing river diversion work at Reshun. The most important thing is we have two months in hand to resolve this critical issue in better way otherwise we will loss Chitral-Mastuj road in Shader area of Reshun.
Here I would like to share some suggestions, feedbacks and drawbacks of ongoing work in Reshun Shader which is totally wastage of time with resources. In addition to that, I have already suggested that the current techniques for river diversion will take much time along with financial implication etc. Please be sure it is very simple work and completion will be done in a short period with low cost; don’t create misconception in social media.
Some days ago I posted on my social media account suggestions regarding the ongoing river diversion work but unfortunately no proper decision has been taken and the same work is still in progress which is totally meaningless according to my perception. In case a wise decision is not taken on time, it will become lead to more disaster.
They are making aggregate and sand wall to divert the river after excavating according to my observations which will never work, Nowadays, the flow of the river is low which may follow the excavated ditch/channel on temporary basis but during summer season (July to September) the flow of the river will be high – more than 60 percent to the current situation. As a result, it will wash out all the dune like materials and again start erosion toward Reshun side and the road.
Now a wise and correct decision will be to start work immediately on the grayish rock on Lon side which is the major cause of erosion of the land and road. This rock is very hard in nature and contact of quartzite and carbonate rock less amount of shale in upper part, basically the origin of rock is back scarp and then flow deposit as highlighted in Picture A which is very hard in nature.
To tackle with this types of rock the only solution is to drill up to the base of rock and put some dynamite and blast. After blasting, some crack will develop on the surface of rock then by using excavator better to shift this muck materials on the right side and use as protection wall purposes.
How to secure the area toward Reshun and Mastuj Road?
This parts need to be protected by concrete wall or making protection wall using blasting rock materials / Muck materials then after backfill by clay in the upper part, it depend on cost if there is enough money allocated for this project better to use concrete protection wall up to 1~2 meters depend and correlate with maximum flow of river and the main thing the protection wall should be along the river not across.
(The writer is geologist/geotech engineer at Webuild, Italy).