PESHAWAR: To cope with gigantic task of reconstruction and rehabilitation of Chitral where the recent Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (Glof) played havoc, the provincial government has decided to utilise a European Union-funded project to rebuild the destroyed community infrastructure in the valley. Sources told The News that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had signed a summary to involve the European Union-funded community driven local development (CDLD) project to support the rebuilding of the flood-hit community infrastructure in Chitral. The decision, an official said, would prove to be a timely bid to rescue Chitral from further devastation and rehabilitate its community infrastructure shattered by recent floods. According to the sources, the European Union-funded project policy was earlier approved by the government to support community-led initiatives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was first implemented in Malakand division where the EU had provided a grant of 80 million Euros to support its initiatives under this programme, the official added. He said the government was committed to initiating community-identified infrastructure projects and implementing them through community-friendly mechanisms and organised communities. However, the project could not initiate its interventions as planned and its work has been slow and no projects started on ground despite the passage of more than eight months of the project period. He said it seems that the widespread destruction of irrigation canals, roads, drinking water channels and sources and bridges in Chitral has woken up both the government and project people to use this initiative to help rebuild the flood-affected communities in Chitral. It has also been learnt that the government would release the entire tranche of Rs340 million to the district so that work on the community infrastructure project could immediately be started. It has been observed that it has been almost a month since the floods hit Chitral and most of its irrigation channels, which were built by communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), were damaged and these have been without water, creating a crisis in the entire district where crops and trees may be lost. The government has also conveyed to the project authorities that rebuilding of the bridges, link roads and drinking water projects should be initiated as top reconstruction priority. It is expected that many of the bridges and link roads and drinking water projects would be rebuilt under this project.
