Plight of Pakistan’s flood-devastated areas comes into focus
It has taken weeks for the trail of destruction in mountain villages to be starkly revealed, writes 
By MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent, The Irish Times
Friday, August 20, 2010 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan — NESTLED AMID the fabled Karakoram range of the greater Himalaya, Kohistan has long been home to one of the most remote communities in Pakistan. Late last month, when the mighty Indus, bloated from weeks of torrential rain, coursed through the region’s valleys, it left a trail of destruction that rendered the place whose name means Land of Mountains even more isolated. Last week Concern, through its local partner organisation Saibaan, was one of the first aid agencies to access flood victims languishing in Kohistan and nearby Shangla, both of which lie in the northernmost reaches of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province in northwest Pakistan which has been one of the hardest-hit in the catastrophic flooding. With roads, bridges and other infrastructure destroyed, Saibaan personnel had no other choice but to trek for hours through the peaks to reach those in need. Video taken of the journey shows the aid workers scaling mountainsides on rope ladders. What they found was devastated promontory villages where homes had been washed away and food had dwindled to dangerously low levels. “These people are on the brink,” says Mubashir Ahmed, Concern’s assistant country director in Pakistan. “These were among the worst hit in the disaster but the rains and flooded roads held us back, and even the government couldn’t get there at first … Now that we are there we can began to bring in food and relief items that will literally save lives.” …
