MANSEHRA: Schools, roads and health facilities that were washed away during the devastating 2022 flash floods in the Ranowalia area of Dubair valley in Lower Kohistan have yet to be reconstructed, depriving the people of education, healthcare and proper communication access.
“Four years on since the devastating flash floods washed away our houses, schools and health facilities, we are still deprived of education, road and healthcare services due to government apathy,” Saifullah Shaheen, a local student, told reporters on Sunday.
Dubair and Ranowalia villages were among the worst-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the 2022 floods, which swept away houses, roads, schools and health facilities, leaving the area’s infrastructure in ruins.
During the same disaster, four drivers who were stranded at a giant rock in a local stream amid roaring floodwater were also swept away one by one in the Sanagia area of the valley after the spillways of a nearby dam were opened, marking one of the gut-wrenching incidents in the district’s history.
“The Government Higher Secondary School in Ranowalia was filled with rocks and stones carried by powerful torrents and has not yet been cleared, forcing students to move to other parts of Hazara division to continue their education,” Shaheen said.
He added that the only college in Ranowalia was also washed away in the floods over three years ago, but the government had failed to reconstruct it.“We are living without basic civic amenities, health, education and communication services, as if in a stone-age era,” he said, adding that he was pursuing his education in Abbottabad at great financial cost.
Another resident, Ijaz Ahmad Khan, said the government was treating the people of Ranowalia and Dubair as second-class citizens.“The government must reconstruct the infrastructure destroyed in the 2022 flash floods to allow us to survive with dignity in our native valley,” he maintained.
