Attabad lake splits local residents

GILGIT: The residents of upper and lower Hunza, separated by the landslide lake in Attabad, have been split by conflicting interests.

If the lake bursts its banks, the people of lower Hunza and Nagar will bear the burnt. And if it does not, those living in the upper part of Hunza, also called Gojal, will lose their houses and all property, already inundated by the expanding lake. There seems to be no option that can protect people from both areas.

In the villages downstream, the government has declared 37 villages as potentially vulnerable to the looming disaster and has shifted nearly 20,000 people to safer places.

Similarly in the villages upstream, at least four villages have been flooded by the expanding lake, forcing people to take shelter in government camps set up in high altitude areas. “We want this lake to go. It has snatched everything from us and has made us refugees,” said a woman from Shishkat, a village upstream inundated by the expanding lake. “I don’t know what will happen to people in villages downstream if the lake bursts its banks…but I want this to happen at all costs. I want my houses back, which is only possible if this lake is drained out and water recedes,” she said.

Other residents from upper Hunza expressed similar sentiments. Ali Madad, a resident of Gojal told The Express Tribune that his patience had been exhausted. “How long will this situation remain?” he said in frustration. ‘We want to back to our routine lives and for that I think the government should burst the bank of the lake,” he said, adding that the crisis had pushed them at least 50 years back as their children could not go to schools and they were without cultivable land.

Meanwhile, people living downstream have completely different sentiments. “We pray that this lake never bursts its banks. If it does, we will lose our houses, cattle and crops,” said Shaukat Hussain, a resident of Nagar. It’s a natural calamity and the people of upper Hunza must bear it. It’s not something we inflicted upon them,” he said.

A resident, Rukhsana, praised the government for adopting a “logical” approach towards the landslide lake and said: “The government is arranging substitute land for the people in upper Hunza, who have lost their property. They will soon adjust to the situation,” she said.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2010.