Nasir Zada
Ushirai Darra and Khoistan areas of Upper Dir district have lost number of watermills due to the devastating floods which hit the area earlier in August this year.
Official figures show that out of 112 winds in the area, 32 were lost to the floods. On the other hand, owners of these water mills are facing problems.
Gul Khan from Almas area said that his family was operating a water mill in the area for past one hundred years. He said that he and 10 other owners lost their water mills during floods. “We do not have any source of income now,” he said.
He said that his father worked his entire life in the water mill and was now old and could not do something else. “Government should reconstruct this water mill for us so that we can earn our livelihoods,” he said.
Gul said that the only two water mills survived the floods while eight others were destroyed. “No one from government visited us while we have submitted some forms; however, nothing has materialized,” he said.
The destruction of water mills has not only driven their owners into financial hardships while on the other hand it has also forced locals to approach machine to grind wheat and corn,” he said. However, he said that the flour ground in a machine lacked the taste of water mill.
Bahar Uddin a local told TNN that they now flour ground in machined was difficult to turn into bread. “We take grains to a local operating grinding machine; however, that we cannot make bread from this flour,” he said.
He said that they have baldy affected due to water mills and government should help restoration of these mills.
On the other hand, authorities have started compensation process for the damaged houses. However, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) officials said that there was no compensation for the damaged or destroyed water mills.
This has forced the water mill owners to struggle to restore their damaged and destroyed water mills on their own.
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