Iqbal Kakar
Syed Noor Ali Shha, 40, a resident of Harnai district of Balochistan is working on self-help basis trying to restore the roads destroyed in floods last year.
“We work round the clock to free vehicles stuck in potholed roads and carry out rescue efforts when there is flood,” he said.
Harnai district, like other parts of the Balochistan, had been badly affected due to last August rains and floods.
Syed said 80pc of district roads and half of the bridges have washed away in floods. “Harnai district produces the highest amount of minerals and vegetables in the province,” he said. However, he said that local populace was facing several problems due to lack of maintenance of roads. Besides, he said that 180kilometer long Harnai-Quetta Road was in terrible shape after the floods. “It would not be wrong if I say that vehicles have trudge through several feet of standing water on this road,” Syed said.
He said that the stretch in Sewai was in bad shape and relevant authorities have not worked to restore it.
Floods destroyed 2200 kilometers of roads in Balochistan
Maqbool Jafer, a spokesperson for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) told TNN that over 50 bridges and 2200 kilometers roads were destroyed in the province due to the floods.
Dr Amini, a resident of Shahrig tehsil said that residents of the area were forced to take their injured and sick to Loralai and Quetta due to absence of health facilities in the district. “If there is a mine collapse accident or women fall ill, we are forced to take them to Quetta or Loralai,” he said.
He said that if they do not make on time the patients die on the way. Similarly, vegetables go bad while being transported out of the district.
Similarly, he said that due to the many coal mines, the area witnessed mine accidents. In addition to this, females in labour have to be transported to Quetta and many times they die on road.
Najeeb Salachi, sub-divisional officer of board of revenue Balochistan said that roads damaged in the floods have been partially restored with the assistance of district administration. Similarly, he said that they have also a report to the chief minister committee for complete restoration of roads. “We have shared the data of damages with the provincial government,” he said. However, he added that federal government has not disbursed the funds to the provinces.
Maqbool Jafer, on the other hand, said that federal government was about to start reconstruction work in 30 districts of the country including 11 from Balochistan.
