Nabi Jan Orakzai
Nowshera district flood protection wall saved the residents of the widespread damages in the last August floods.
Locals told TNN flood protection wall did not allowed the flood waters to enter the residential areas all at once, thus allowed them considerable time to evacuate and also not too much water into residential areas.
On the other hand, district administration figures show that more than 500 houses and 8.5 million acres of agricultural land were affected due to the floods. More than 5000 farmers were also affected due to the floods.
Saeed Shah, a resident of Zawani Khel area of Nowshera, told TNN that the embankments built around the course of river prevented much of the damages. He said that in 2010 floods there was more than two feet water stood over his house. However, he said that this time it was not the same situation as the protection walls saved them from more damages.
He said that in some areas there were damages due to the breaking of protection walls.
Zakaria, a resident of Derukhel mohallah of the district told TNN that protection walls slowed down the flow of the flooding waters thus locals had ample to leave. He said that protection walls saved them from losses they had suffered in 2010.
“The protection works slowed the water flow and it allowed locals to save their belonging and leave in time,” he said. However, he demanded authorities to strengthen the protection wall in his area, saying it was very weak.
He said that substandard material was used in the construction of the protection wall and its further strengthening will save the people from floods in future.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Nowshera Miss Wazir also said that flood protection wall saved the district from a major catastrophe. She said that protection walls have been built on the River Kabul in many areas of the district. Besides, she said that there were many court cases over the land on which the protection wall was being built. “We expedited these court cases and started construction,” she said.
However, she said that in many places the walls were weak, which resulted in damages to the protection works and they have strengthened them. Besides, she said that there were also encroachments on the protection works and they were also working to resolve this issue.
