Chitral, 23 September 2022—A UNDP mission led by the Resident Representative Mr Knut Ostby visited Chitral to meet the flood-affected community and to identify recovery and reconstruction needs. 

This year, GLOF incidents compounded with torrential monsoon rainfall increased the water levels in the rivers, causing hill torrents and flash flooding—putting the communities downstream at high risk. Damages were incurred not only to houses, infrastructure, and livestock but precious human lives were also lost. Flood damage assessment is still underway by the disaster management authorities as accessibility remains limited and a huge issue in many areas. 

Mr Ostby met with affected families and community representatives from Reshun, Arkari, and Madaklasht valleys of Upper Chitral to understand their recovery needs.

Mr Ostby also distributed Rescue and Relief equipment amongst the Hazard Watch Groups (HWG), established by the GLOF-II project of the Government of Pakistan and UNDP. He emphasized UNDP’s continuous support to all line departments including district administration, provincial disaster management authority, Rescue 1122, and members of the local Community Based Disaster Risk Management Committees to overcome the resultant losses. The distributed equipment included, sleeping bags, tents, rain sheets, raincoats, backpacks, sunglasses alongside UPS batteries, generators, inverters, binoculars, handheld transceiver, GPS, gas cylinders, portal generators, cyber shot cameras, range finders, small solar panels and other items.