YARKHUN: The continuing rain and snowfall have created numerous problems for the residents of the most backward and remote Yarkhun valley of Chitral. The most burning issue in the winter here is shortage of firewood. Most of the residents had not stocked wood for fuel purposes before the snowfall. For majority of the residents who do not own forest for use as firewood fetching them from mountain tops is the only option. Due to high price and difficulty in transportation, people here cannot afford to bring firewood from Chitral town.

Besides, due to blockades of roads, availability of food items has also become a big issue. The worst affected are patients as in the whole valley with the population of about 50,000 there is even no basic health care unit. Resultantly, sick patients have to depend on grocerry shop owners for medical treatment as they sell medicines for commong illnesses like cold, flu etc.

It is yet another issue that in the winter majority of the male members of families here move to cities especially Islamabad for earning their livelihoods by working as construction workers and there are hardly anyone to take care of the elderly people and the sick. There are also villages in the upper parts of the valley like Broghil which remain incommunicado for whole winter due to blockade of roads. The Yarkhun valley has also no telephone facility.

"Our problems is that there is no one who can listen to our miseries and work to resolve them.  As a result, we suffer all types of problems in silence," a resident said.--Piyar Ali