socioeconomic development, it was the government that had the primary duty and resources to make poverty an important plank of national policy.
He said that reaching out to the poor segments of the population was the need of the hour in the province.
The conference was organised to review the work being funded by the European Union under the Programme for Economic Advancement and Community Empowerment (PEACE) and Community Driven Local Development (CDLD) Programmes in Malakand Division.
Earlier, SRSP Chief Executive Officer Masoodul Mulk explained that under the PEACE Project 62 percent of the funding was utilised for generation of community run micro-hydro power units in the project areas.
He said that on the initiative of the provincial government, PEDO had handed over six dysfunctional units to the SRSP.
“The one at Kalam was revived and its production doubled to 400 KW within six months while another at Ashuran Kalam would soon be producing 1.2 megawatts of electricity making Kalam to be the first valley with surplus electricity in the province. Similar units would come into production by mid-year 2016 in Dir, Shangla and Chitral. So far, 99 micro hydro units have been initiated/ completed generating 15.9 Megawatts of electricity,” he explained.
He said the electricity was supporting cottage industry, hospitals, basic health units, local enterprises, hotels and tourism besides lighting homes.
Masoodul Mulk explained that the SRSP was helping communities rebuild roads, drinking water, irrigation channels and reviving government facilities.
Citing an example, he said that 53 wells constructed around Chitral supplied with drinking water during floods to 10,600 households on daily basis during the recent floods.
District Nazim of Swat Muhammad Ali Shah, of Chitral Maghfirat Shah and that of Upper Dir Sahibzada Fasihullah reiterated the need to involve the district government actively in the CDLD Project.
Interesting presentations were also made on experience of poverty programmes in KP by Ejaz Rizvi, Dr Tayyab from Cambridge University spoke on Smart Village initiative, Dr Fawad Khan from ISET Pakistan on Biogas and Alternate Energy Solution, and Technical team of European Union also spoke on the occasion.
Local communities from Kohat and Haripur also presented own work to emphasis linkages, governance and socio-economic development at local level in the conference.
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