A month after a landslide in Upper Hunza killed 20 people and left 1,500 others homeless, the fate of the victims has largely been forgotten. Their suffering is far from over. The Gojal tehsil remains cut off from the rest of the country, since the river was dammed as a result of debris tumbling into it after the landslide and has risen into a lake blocking the Karakorum Highway. About 75 households trapped beyond this lake must rely on goods from China to survive. They are forced to buy these at prices they can simply not afford. Work on opening the road continues, but local people complain that it is far too slow. The difficult terrain of course adds to the difficulties for those working on the highway. Other victims of the landslide in the devastated village of Atabad have also complained of being left without shelter in freezing temperatures as no arrangements have been made to re-house them.
This is not an isolated example. After every natural disaster we hear similar complaints. Once initial media and public interest fades away, people are frequently left on their own. Indeed, this has happened even in the case of those affected by the October 2005 quake. Today, we hear that in devastated areas of Azad Kashmir there still are children who go to school that are actually tents and people who are waiting for help. The attention-span of the government needs to be longer. In Gojal, stranded people need food to be lifted in to them alongside work on the road. It is crucial that people are not left to suffer alone. Rhetoric must be backed consistently with action.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=223354
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