Deadline expires: villagers threaten intervention
Thousands of people displaced in Attabad have threatened to restart their own effort to widen the spillway.
Thousands of people displaced by an artificial lake in the Attabad area of Hunza have threatened to restart their own effort to widen the spillway at the risk of their lives as the 10-day deadline set by them for the government expired on Monday.
However, sources say the authorities could impose section 144 in the region to check any such “adventurism” by the villagers.
The affected villagers had given the authorities until June 28 to widen the spillway to drain the lake or else they would do it on their own. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had assured the villagers that they would use explosives to break huge boulders hampering the flow of water in the spillway. Subsequently, a team of experts from the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) did use explosives in an attempt to widen the spillway but failed to get desired results. They gave up the idea much to the dismay of local residents.
“We were assured that the outflow would increase to 40,000 cusecs within 10 days but now we are being told that it is around 15,500 cusecs,” a villager told The Express Tribune. “We have to widen the spillway even at the risk of our own lives because our homes and farms have been under water for the last six months,” he added.
However, officials say they will not allow this.
“Nobody will not be allowed to risk their lives and threaten hundreds of people living in villages downstream,” an official told The Express Tribune from Hunza by telephone. He claimed that engineers have removed huge boulders from the spillway and outflow has increased.
He also claimed that water level in the lake decreased by 13 inches during the last 24 hours, ruling out the possibility of more villages coming under water.
The 24-kilometre-long lake was formed on January 1 when a massive landslide blocked the flow of the fast-flowing Hunza River. The lake then submerged four upstream villages, killing 20 people and damaging the strategic Karakoram Highway. Some of the affected people in Gojal village threatened to commit mass suicide in protest against “the government’s apathy” towards their plight.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2010.
However, sources say the authorities could impose section 144 in the region to check any such “adventurism” by the villagers.
The affected villagers had given the authorities until June 28 to widen the spillway to drain the lake or else they would do it on their own. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had assured the villagers that they would use explosives to break huge boulders hampering the flow of water in the spillway. Subsequently, a team of experts from the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) did use explosives in an attempt to widen the spillway but failed to get desired results. They gave up the idea much to the dismay of local residents.
“We were assured that the outflow would increase to 40,000 cusecs within 10 days but now we are being told that it is around 15,500 cusecs,” a villager told The Express Tribune. “We have to widen the spillway even at the risk of our own lives because our homes and farms have been under water for the last six months,” he added.
However, officials say they will not allow this.
“Nobody will not be allowed to risk their lives and threaten hundreds of people living in villages downstream,” an official told The Express Tribune from Hunza by telephone. He claimed that engineers have removed huge boulders from the spillway and outflow has increased.
He also claimed that water level in the lake decreased by 13 inches during the last 24 hours, ruling out the possibility of more villages coming under water.
The 24-kilometre-long lake was formed on January 1 when a massive landslide blocked the flow of the fast-flowing Hunza River. The lake then submerged four upstream villages, killing 20 people and damaging the strategic Karakoram Highway. Some of the affected people in Gojal village threatened to commit mass suicide in protest against “the government’s apathy” towards their plight.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2010.