Spillway to be deepened another 30 metres

Experts say spillway will cause more than half of the lake to flow out, enabling people to reclaim their lands.

GILGIT: Authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan have planned to drain the 23-kilometre-long ‘landslide’ lake in Attabad within the next three months by deepening the spillway by another 30 metres, officials said on Wednesday.

“The work on the spillway will commence on November 1, as the plan is under discussion at the highest level,” Provincial Finance Minister Mohammad Ali Akhtar told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

A massive landslide early this year had blocked River Hunza, creating a lake that submerged at least five villages of upper Hunza as it expanded over the months. More than 4,000 people were displaced due to the landslide that had killed 20 people in Attabad village. In an attempt to drain the lake, army engineers completed a spillway by June, through which water discharge continues till present.

According to experts, if the spillway is made another 30 metres deep, more than half of the water stored in the lake will flow out through it, meaning that the submerged villages - Ainabad, Shishkat, Gulmit, Hussaini and Gulkin - will resurface, enabling people to reclaim their lands.

Akhtar said that time is favourable for the task, adding that the melting of glaciers has slowed down due to the cold weather, decreasing the amount of water flowing into the river from the mountains.

“The task will be completed before the melting process of glaciers restarts,” he said, adding that the government will decide whether the task will be handed over to Chinese engineers or the Frontier Works Organisation [FWO] engineers, or to both.

The finance minister’s hometown - Nagar, the next immediate village downstream, is likely to be hit by a flash flood if the lake burst its banks.

In June, just days before water discharge began through the spillway a similar fear forced the government to shift more than 20,000 people living in downstream villages to safer places.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2010.