Food crisis looms large in Gilgit-Baltistan

The region will be hit hard by a food crisis, Speaker of the region’s legislative assembly Wazir Baig said.

GILGIT: After devastation caused by floods, the Gilgit-Baltistan region will be hit hard by a food crisis, Speaker of the region’s legislative assembly Wazir Baig said on Saturday.

He was talking to The Express Tribune on Saturday over phone. “Crops all over the country have been hit by the floods…I fear a food crisis is looming large on the horizon,” he said.

Baig mentioned that aid worth 20 million yuans to Gilgit had been delayed after a bridge in the Khyber-Gojal area was washed away by floods, severing the regions link with China.

Most necessary commodities in the region have either been depleted or are being sold at staggeringly high prices, further distressing the disaster-hit people.

Baig said that there have been reports of artificial shortages and profiteering. “Such elements will be punished.”

Expressing concern over the lack of clean drinking water, Baig said that the matter was being addressed by the administration. “People in Hunza have told me that they do not even have adequate clean drinking water,” he said, adding that the floods and landslides had damaged the irrigation system in the entire region.

He also said that disruption of traffic on the Karakoram Highway had inflicted heavy losses to region’s economy which was already under pressure because of the Attabad lake crisis.

“The region is in the grip of a serious crisis. We urge the people to remain (calm and) patient so that we can successfully tackle key problems,” he said.

According to one estimate, Gilgit-Baltistan has suffered a loss of over Rs10 billion.

Highlighting the fuel shortage in the region, Baig said that 100,000 litres of diesel had been sent to Gilgit via Chitral which will arrive there once the roads are opened.

He also said that they have asked the Northern Areas Transport Company to start operating from Gilgit to facilitate people. He also asked the authorities concerned to make the process of wheat flour distribution more people-friendly.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2010.