Climate change is hitting home with heavy snow halting normal life, creating food insecurity in districts of upper and lower Chitral. The situation is dire, as MNA Abdul Akbar Chitrali has asserted that “It may result in a human tragedy”.
The closure of roads to more than a dozen valleys in Chitral for the last three weeks has been creating countless issues for people.
The most affected areas are the sub-valleys of Madaklasht, Susoom, Karimabad, and Gobor in Lower Chitral and Broghil, Yarkhoon, Upper Terich, Khot, Rech, Melp and Rech in Upper Chitral, says the report by Dawn. One has to wade through the snow for more than eight hours to reach there.
The residents of the affected areas have said that food items and lifesaving drugs are running out while patients are taken on shoulder by villagers towards the road.
Some minor work has been done by the government in the city but the roads leading to the sub-valleys are still unclear, leaving it up to the local people to do it on self-help basis.
The former village nazim of Broghil, Amin Jan Tajik, said that there was a famine-like situation for people and their cattle after the valley received more than four feet snow while one had to walk for two days to reach Brep village to get a vehicle.
He recalled that the last time the valley received such a heavy snowfall was in 1974, prompting the then government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to airdrop ration for people as well as forage for their cattle, which formed their only source of sustenance.
Mr Tajik said that to reopen the road by clearing snow and removing boulders and debris was beyond the capacity of locals as heavy machinery was required for the purpose.
Former MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali while talking to Dawn said that closure of roads gave birth to all kinds of issues and it was a pity that both federal and provincial governments neglected the ordeals of people.
Talking to journalists here on Wednesday, he said that restoration of power supply to the affected villages would not be possible without reopening of roads. “More than three-fourth villages of Chitral have been without electricity after the heavy snowfall,” he added.
He said that during the month of Ramazan, shortage of food was deplorable.
