Though silted and wrecked, the resurfacing of a bank’s building in Gulmit, following the recent widening of the Attabad Lake spillway, has rekindled people’s hopes that their submerged lands will finally be recovered.
Engineers of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) dynamited the accidental lake’s spillway on February 28, bringing down the water level by approximately 15 to 25 feet.
The engineers estimate that the lake, which has swelled over 23 kilometres (km) upstream ever since it was formed in 2010, will be completely drained out once the exercise is repeated next month.
“We had lost all hope for recovering our homes and lands,” said Abbas Ali, a resident of Gojal, whose house and orchards are still submerged in the lake.
A hotel along the Karakoram Highway has also resurfaced after the widening of the spillway.
According to officials, when the spillway was dynamited, a wave of more than 50,000 cusecs water gushed out initially, but it slowed down in the succeeding hours as the water failed to force away some heavy boulders underneath, blocking the spillway.
If the lake is drained, the travel woes of over 25,000 residents of Gojal will be resolved, who were forced to travel on private boats to cross the 23km-lake to reach Gilgit. But that was no longer an option in winters when the lake had frozen and the government had banned the risky journey.
Residents have expressed the hope that the FWO engineers will not let them down and will succeed in recovering their lost lands in Gojal valley, upper Hunza.
The Attabad Lake was formed after a massive landslide blocked the Hunza River in January 2010. As the lake expanded, it submerged at least four villages upstream, displacing the local population.
The lake also submerged parts of the Karakoram Highway and a major bridge in Gojal, severing the area from the rest of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2012.
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