Kunar residents want boulder retaining wall project resumed

ASADABAD (Pajhwok): Some residents of eastern Kunar province have asked the government to resume construction work on retaining walls on Kunar River’s banks to protect nearby homes and farm fields.

Malik Khan Bacha, a tribal elder of Sarkano district, told Pajhwok Afghan News the retaining walls’ construction works remained incomplete.

Khan Bacha said: “To control the water of Kunar River, most works of the retaining walls along the banks have been completed, but some parts of this project remain incomplete and the river still threatens some houses and farmland”.

He called the retaining walls project “very important” to be completed to save houses and cultivation land of residents from destruction by water.

Mohammad Gulab, a tribal elder of Khas Kunar district, said: “The construction of this boulder retaining wall was a major infrastructure project by the previous government and people had attached their hopes with it, but this project could not be completed”.

Gullah asked the government to complete the project in order to protect the lives and properties of residents from possible danger of floods.

Officials of the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Directorate in Kunar say the retaining walls project has been 65 percent completed while efforts are underway to finish the reaming work of this project.

Engineer Abdul Fattah, head of construction in the Rural Rehabilitation and Development directorate, said: “The project spread over five districts of Kunar province was launched at the time of the previous government at a cost of over one billion afghanis by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MoRRD), but its works were stopped with the collapse of the previous government”.

The boulder retaining wall is 50 kilometers long and with its construction, thousands of hectares of agricultural land and people’s houses will be saved from being flooded, Fattah said.

He said provincial officials had shared the issue with the central government and it was hoped practical steps would be taken to complete it.

Kunar River is one of the important rivers of the country and most of its water flows out of the country and agricultural lands and houses of local people are often threatened by rising water level.

aw/ma

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