Thousands face displacement in Hunza if lake bursts its banks – IRIN Report
Thousands face displacement if lake bursts its banks
The new lake on the Hunza River
ISLAMABAD, 10 May 2010 (IRIN) – Flooding caused by an overflowing lake, formed after a landslide blocked the River Hunza in northern Pakistan in January, has forced hundreds from their homes, and threatens to displace thousands more.
According to media reports, 88 houses in Aeenabad and Shashkat villages, and two bridges, have been swept away. The two areas were cut-off by the floods.
The water has reached Gulmit, the largest town in Gojal sub-district of Hunza-Nagar District.
“The situation is quite critical. About 13,000 people in the affected area face displacement,” Noor Muhammad, of the NGO Focus Humanitarian Assistance, which has been monitoring the situation in Hunza, told IRIN.
He said organized evacuations had not begun but people had been moving away. “People need to be relocated to safe areas. The situation is quite dangerous.” Nine sites, including government schools and other buildings, had been identified for housing people, he added.
According to a 30 April humanitarian update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some “200 people had been relocated as a precaution”.
The lake is 16km long and 350 metres wide. Water is pouring into it at the rate of 2,500 cubic metres per day, according to media reports. The lake does not have an appropriate spillway, so there is a risk it could suddenly burst its banks.
The Pakistan army’s Frontier Works Organization has been attempting since January to create a spillway, but is now likely to stop work, according to Muhammad, due to rising water levels in the lake and the threat of flooding.
The 4 January landslide caused at least 13 deaths and blocked the river in the Attabad area. The lake that formed cut road links to Gojal, resulting in food shortages there. If the lake bursts its banks, flash floods could cause havoc downriver.
“Confusion”
“The situation in the affected area has been very grim for months. People are terrified of floods, and those in Gojal have had to depend on many items from China at high cost as links to Pakistan have been cut off,” Ali Ahsan, a resident of Hunza, told IRIN on the phone.
“Panic is now mounting. Goods were reaching them by boat but now these have stopped running due to a fuel shortage,” he said.
Since the landslide, over 1,000 displaced people from Attabad village and nearby areas have been living in makeshift camps. In March, the governor of Gilgit-Baltistan, a non-self-governing territory, declared Gojal sub-district in Upper Hunza Region “disaster hit”, and said the government was “fully prepared to deal with any situation”.
“We are still awaiting instructions on what to do next. There is a lot of confusion,” Muhammad Ali, 40, a resident of Hunza town, said. “People who lost cattle and property in the landslide need more help.”
Source: IRIN News 10 May 2010 – a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Daily Times Report
Landslide lake in Hunza rises to threatening levels
LAHORE: The water level of a landslide-triggered lake in Hunza is threateningly on the rise, with another village facing risks of a flood, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. The artificial lake formed out of a landslide, has not only destroyed the Atta Abad village, but also completely covered the villages of Gojal, Aieenabad and Shashkat. The threatening water level may inundate Gulmit, the headquarters of Gojal tehsil, as its low-lying areas are already under water, the channel reported. The residents of Atta Abad were given a May 15 deadline to vacate the area after experts voiced their concerns that the Atta Abad Lake dam may breach soon. Separately, residents of Hunza district are facing severe food shortages due to a shortage of fuel. Goods laden trucks have been unable to cross the Chinar Bagh Bridge, due to which fuel cannot be delivered to boats, leaving them stranded. daily times monitor
Source: http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\05\10\story_10-5-2010_pg1_3
Video update (30 April 2010)
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Two news reports with a lag of almost 4 months:
Report 1
Hunza river water rises 4 metres in 24 hours
By Zulfiqar Ali Khan
Saturday, 09 Jan, 2010
HUNZA, Jan 8: The hope for survival of six persons trapped under the debris of landslide faded as search operation was closed on Friday.
Geologists and experts from the Focus Humanitarian and Wapda have visited the affected area to find ways for release of water as the Hunza River has been blocked.
Talking to Dawn, an expert said that the water level of the 5km lake was increasing by about 4 metres in 24 hours. He said the water was 20-55 meters below the lower parts of Ayeenabad settlement in Gojal and it could inundate about nine houses in five to six days. He said the water could also submerge the Karakoram Highway (KKH) at different locations.
Similarly, search and rescue operation at the disaster site has been halted after failing to recover the bodies of six missing persons. According to the information cell in Altit, the names of the missing persons are: Essa Khan, 75; Ghulam Madi, 55; Shamim Bano, 45; Abbas Ali, 38; and Faizan Karim, 7.
Those whose bodies were recovered on the first day are: Nine-month-old Faisal; Shehzadi, 7; Saleem Khan, 10; Iram Bano, 10; Alhan Karim, 12; Wasim Khan, 12; Sultan Karim, 13; Sultana Bano, 16; Salma Bano, 17; Sheri Bano, 21; Shahina Parveen, 21; Sulaimani, 49; Niyat Begum, 65; and Essa Khan, 75.
Meanwhile, public representatives and top officials of Gilgit-Baltistan visited relief camps established for the affected families at Altit. Experts also visited the disaster site and assessed the lake formed upstream of the landslide site on Hunza River.
“It will take about three weeks to release water from the lake forming on Hunza River due to the massive land movements in Atabad village,” said Babar Yaqub, chief secretary Gilgit-Baltistan, during visit to the relief camps.
Speaker Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) Wazir Baig, Member GBLA Yasmeen Nazar, renowned mountaineer Nazir Sabir were also present on the occasion.
He said that engineers of Wapda, army and National Highway Authority were jointly devising strategies in this regards. “Our top priority is to save the expected losses due to the blockade of river in Gojal or due to the sudden break in low lying areas,” he added.
The chief secretary said the federal government had instructed them to provide food and other basic items through the Utility Stores outlets at Gulmit and Sost in Gojal tehsil.
Member National Assembly Marvi Memon, Member GBLA Mirza Hussain also visited the disaster-hit area and relief camps.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/hunza-river-water-rises-4-metres-in-24-hours-910
Report 2
Rising lake water starts submerging houses in Gulmit
By Zulfiqar Ali Khan
Friday, 07 May, 2010
HUNZA, May 6: The lake formed on the Hunza River by landslide early this year at Attabad has started submerging houses in Gulmit, the largest settlement and headquarters of Gojal tehsil, as the water level is rising fast with the increase in temperature.
The lake has also started submerging the pillars of an under-construction bridge and a suspension bridge between Gulmit and Shishkat.
The lake has already consumed more than 75 houses, two community centres, a primary school, crop fields, trees and other properties in Shishkat and Ayeenabad.
Meanwhile, the Frontier Works Organisation is running short of time to release the lake water.
The FWO personnel are developing terraces on both sides of the block, rather than cutting it down to ensure the lake water is released early. According to reports of Focus Humanitarian Assistance Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan Works Department more than 65 feet height of the debris still remains for overflow of the water. This situation is further threatening more than 60 houses in Shishkat and Gulmit along with the market and offices in the commercial areas. The people of the affected areas have blamed FWO and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for the billion worth loss to the property of local community and the strategic Karakoram Highway due to lack of seriousness in early release of water.
They demanded of the government for an impartial probe against the authorities for negligence, downplaying the enormity of the danger and providing misleading information to the government and international agencies.
It may be recalled that the outgoing NDMA Chairman Gen (retd) Farooq Ahmed Khan had given three weeks deadline for the release of the lake water during his first visit to Shishkat and Gulmit in February.
The local people demanded of the government to take him to task for giving misleading information and not allowing international agencies to assist in draining out the lake water.
They said that statistics from independent sources rejected the official figures of excavation works at the disaster site.
According to Focus experts monitoring the lake, the inflow of Hunza River has reached 2,300 cusecs with more than 2.5 feet increase in the average daily water level in the lake. The more than 14 kilometres lake has gained a maximum depth of 305 feet.
The administrations of Gilgit and Hunza-Nagar districts have started to revisit and implement the evacuation plan for downstream areas, as according to experts the water level in the lake has reached critical stage. According to sources the administration has decided to close schools in Hunza-Nagar and Gilgit districts to deal with emergency situation that could arise any time due to overtopping of water or sudden outburst.
The administration has directed to safely remove the installations along the river banks in order to minimise the losses. The early removal of the belly bridge between Gilgit and Danyore has created problems to thousands of people in transportation of food and other items in heavy trucks.
It is worth mentioning here that the reports of international experts and Nespak have indicated the possibility of widespread devastation due to sudden lake outburst or erosion of debris after overtopping.
http://news.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/rising-lake-water-starts-submerging-houses-in-gulmit-750
The state of Pakistan has abandoned these people because they are Agha Khanis. Had they been Taliban/Wahabi/Deobandi the great Pak Fauj would have been burning midnight oil to save them.
Flooding fears as Pakistan tries to ease dam pressure
Wednesday, 12 May, 2010
A landslide in early January blocked the Hunza River and created a lake 16 km (10 miles) long. – (File Photo)
FRONT PAGE
Tarbela can absorb Hunza lake water
Tarbela can absorb Hunza lake water
GILGIT: Fears are growing a lake created by a landslide will burst and cause a massive flood that could affect more than 50,000 people in northern Pakistan and disrupt a key trade link with China, residents said on Wednesday.
Possible disaster also threatens the popular tourist resort of Gulmit on the main Karakoram Highway that links Pakistan with China, and part of which has already closed, they said.
About 1,700 people have been forced to flee their homes after flooding swept Ayeenabad and Shishkat villages in the district of Hunza, wiping out dozens of houses about 750 kilometres (467 miles) north of Islamabad.
“We are expecting water from the 15 kilometre-long lake to reach the spillway by May 27 and then (overflowing) will begin,” local official Asif Bilal Lodhi told AFP.
Lodhi, who heads the local Disaster Management Authority, said preparations were finalised to shelter around 18,000 internally displaced people from at least 27 villages in Hunza and Gilgit districts who could be affected.
The lake was created out of the Hunza river by a landslide on January 4 that killed 20 people.
Authorities in the remote Himalayan region have set up nine relief centres where medicines and food items are being stockpiled for people who could be uprooted in low-lying areas.
They have also installed warning sirens linked to a control room in Gilgit, the nearest large town 145 kilometres away, to deal with any eventuality.
In the scenic town of Gulmit, popular with tourists escaping the brutal summer heat in Pakistan’s lowlands, residents have felled trees as the water level in the lake has risen to 323 feet (about 100 metres).
The water is expected to rise further because of rain and melting glaciers.
A spillway, being built by army engineers to avert possible disaster, will take an estimated two more weeks to complete. It should divert the water back to its old route winding into the Gilgit river.
Meanwhile, people in Gojal town have been forced to take boats after roads were left under water.
Public representatives, however, have expressed satisfaction with the relief efforts.
“We are satisfied with the relief work but concerned for the permanent rehabilitation of those who are affected and to be affected after breach of the reservoir,” said Wazir Baig, a lawmaker from Hunza.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/03-flooding-fears-as-pakistan-tries-to-ease-dam-pressure-ss-06
I doubt if the landside created Attabad Dam will not collapse sooner or later. The writing is on the wall. The spillway can only drain the water, which is stored up to the crest of the spillway. This will not prevent the body of the dam from collapse caused by internal erosion and piping. This Dam and the reservoir lake typify glacial lakes, which are formed on retreat of glaciers, leaving behind terminal moraines to act as dams. Such glacial lakes, often burst the body of the moraines, and cause heavy flood downstream of the dam. It is, therefore, pertinent to evacuate people downstream of the dam.
asadkazi@isra.edu.pk
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