Lake created by landslide in Hunza still a threat

By Iftikhar A. Khan in the Dawn, Mar 13
ISLAMABAD, March 12: Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Lt Gen (retired) Farooq Ahmad Khan on Friday said the possible outburst of the artificial lake created by landsliding in Atabad village of Hunza was still a threat.

Speaking at a press conference, he said a monitoring system and effective alarm mechanism was in place to inform the natives in case of emergency, besides arrangements for their immediate evacuation to safer place.

“We have also hired an expert of World Bank who will visit the site to assess the possibility of breakage,” he said.

The NDMA Chief said work on spillway to discharge water from the lake was underway, but refused to give any deadline for its completion.

An official of the NDMA however talking to Dawn said the work was expected to be completed in the next three weeks, if the situation remained favourable. “The Chairman deliberately avoided to give a time-frame as he does not want to face embarrassment like the Minister for Water and Power who claimed the load-shedding would end by December last year proved to be false”, he remarked.

General Farooq said that digging for over 92,000 cubic metre spillway had been completed and work for another 20,000 cubic metres was currently going on.

He said the landsliding incident of January 4 completely destroyed 60 houses besides killing 19 people and leaving another seven injured.

He said 300 cattle were also killed in the incident. He said that the landslide blocked Hunza River and approximately 3-4 kilometre portion of Karakorum Highway came under the debris.

He said approximately 25,000 locals of upper Hunza were stranded.

He said that the NDMA officials evaluated the situation and the relief work started immediately.

He said that so far 1,854 tents, 8,884 blankets, 1,700 warm jackets, 6,000 shawls, 17 pallets.

He said the option of using explosives to open the lake was considered at a stage but the experts were of the view that it could be devastative and may lead to more land sliding besides inundating nearby villages.

He said 15 boats were sailing in the lake to meet the challenge of transportation while helicopters were also taking part in the rescue operation. www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/lake-created-by-landslide-in-hunza-still-a-threat-330