HUNZA, Jan 23: It is 23 days since the massive landslide hit Atabad village, blocking the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the only land link between China and Pakistan, bringing to a halt the civic and commercial life in Gojal. With the passage of time, shops, stores, and health units are running out of stocks of food and other daily use items and medicines.
An artificial lake has formed on the Hunza River inundating a number of villages in Gojal. The rise in the level of lake water is endangering thousands of lives upstream and downstream in other parts of Hunza-Nagar and Gilgit districts.
The people while praising government for its quick relief operation and airlifting of food to Gojal are highly critical of the pace of work in releasing the lake water.
“There is a threat of sudden outburst of the lake,” said an official involved in the relief operation and monitoring of the post-disaster situation quoting a latest report prepared by Wapda experts. “The outburst of the lake can generate a wave of 20 to 30 meters high which can wipe out settlements and installations downstream,”
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Ismailimail 