Team of experts examines spillway at Attabad lake

GILGIT: A team of experts has reached Hunza from Islamabad to chalk out a plan to drain the Attabad lake, officials said on Saturday.

The experts consulted officials at Hunza and Gilgit before inspecting the situation of the spillway. Among others, the team of experts was joined by engineers from the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) who had initially prepared the spillway to drain the lake in May.

“Limited use of explosives could be the best option to breach the boulders resisting water outflow from the lake,” an official said but added that extra care was needed as a slight miscalculation could lead to disaster.

Experts had earlier warned that two to three big stones in the spillway were restricting the outflow of water, but expected that increasing water pressure could move with the boulders.

Officials said that the experts were sent to Gilgit by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chief Lieutenant-General Farooq Ahmed after he accepted the demands of victims who had themselves attempted to widen the spillway on Thursday and Friday. About 200 affectees had even defied section 144 to reach the banks of the lake. Sources said that police in Hunza and Gulmit remained on high alert on to prevent the people from reaching the lake.

On Saturday, the total discharge of water recorded at Ganish Bridge was 7,000 cusecs but officials said that the hot and dry weather had intensified melting of glaciers. “The inflow can increase manifold in the coming days if weather remains dry and hot,” an official said. Meanwhile, following instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, teams of doctors of the Punjab health department are providing treatment to those affected by the lake. In the past three days, the teams have treated more than 1,200 people from various internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps.

According to a handout issued by the health department on Saturday, a consignment of medicines had also been sent to the affected areas from Rawalpindi containing medicines for malaria, coughs, allergies and fever.