Attabad disaster: First anniversary to be observed today

ISLAMABAD: One year on, the miseries of the Attabad disaster affected people  seems to be not yet over. People of the area still suffer -- thanks to  the apathy of the local government.

A massive landslide hit Attabad village in Hunza on January 4, 2010, killing 20 people and damaging orchards, fields and trees. The landslide also blocked the flow of the Hunza River, creating a 23-km lake that submerged three villages upstream and 23 km portion of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), severing trade and tourism link between Pakistan and China.

Some 25,000 people of Gojal Tehsil are still stranded and facing tremendous difficulties due to the suspension of boat service, and non-availability of health and other basic facilities. But the local administration seems to be unmoved and  oblivious of miseries of the people. The boat service has been suspended for the last three weeks due to the frozen lake and there is no alternative travel option.

However the Acting Governor of Gilgit-Baltistan Wazir Baig told the Express Tribune that Pakistan Army would soon start helicopter service for the stranded people, transporting the patients and others to Hunza and other towns. He added that the provincial government had requested the army to launch helicopter services on an emergency basis.

The acting governor said the Chinese government has provided 3,000 tons of coal to meet fuel needs of the people in the chilly weather. The requirement of the people of the area is 850 tons, he maintained.

Baig said that the provincial government has received Rs315 million from the federal government for rehabilitation of the displaced people, which  will be disbursed in three phases. He added that two waterproof boats would be purchased  at a cost of Rs4.5 million by NATCO.

He added that due to the disaster, almost 75 per cent of trade between China and Pakistan had suffered this year.

The provincial government has given Rs5 million to the heirs of each victim of the Attabad landslide and an equal amount has been given by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2011.