Protection wall, shelter hall constructed at Reshun Gol
Gul Hamad Farooqui
BOONI (UPPER CHITRAL): The beautiful Reshun village has been devastated for the last 13 years. The disastrous flooding that occurred in 2015 had not only destroyed the only bridge between Lower and Upper Chitral but also washed away houses, shops, cultivated land, standing crops and orchards.
As a result, many families were displaced and they had to take shelter elsewhere. The number of the displaced people has increased and the floods from glacial lake outburst continued.
To protect the area from further damages, the Soil and Water Conservation Department has constructed a protection wall in Reshun Gol. In the same place, the hall and laboratory of the Government High School were also destroyed due to flood in 2015. A shelter home has now been constructed here by the department in a short period of three months to provide shelter to people during flood emergency in future. The shelter home can be used by local people as a community hall.
These construction works were funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Project II and carried out by the Soil and Water Conservation Department.
UNDP Resident Representative Dr. Samuel Rizk and a woman representative visited these sites and inaugurated the development works. Director General of the Soil and Water Conservation Mohammad Yasin Khan Wazir, SDFO Forest Department Umair Nawaz and representatives of GLOF II Shahzada Iqtidarul Mulk and other staffers were present.
A function was held in Reshun in which people of the area presented thanks to UNDP and demanded that a long-term plan be approved to protect the village from flood.
The resident representative of UNDP said, “I had heard about the beauty of Reshun and today I have the opportunity to see it with my team practically. I am very sorry to see the devastation of the flood and the United Nations Development Program will never leave you helpless.”
The guests were presented traditional Chitrali cloaks while the UN representative, who is from Russia, was presented a traditional cap. The UNDP team also visited the powerhouse in Reshun which was destroyed in the flood of 2015.