500,000 Pakistanis face imminent danger from impending flash floods. The Governor Gilgit-Baltistan, Mr. Qamar Zaman Kaira has declared an emergency in the area and designated Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) as a calamity area. A landslide on January 4, 2010 a landslide blocked the Hunza River forming a beautiful lake.
After the blockage of the Hunza River, the second phase of the natural catastrophe began. The river began transforming itself into a natural lake in an area called Gojal valley — an international borders’ magistracy spanning more than 10,000 sq km–connecting Pakistan with China and Afghanistan.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfL159AhUOg&feature=player_embedded]
This phenomenon takes us back to when in 1858 the Hunza River blocked almost at the same place due to the landslide. A natural dam had emerged, submerging the upstream settlements such as half of Gulmit (the winter capital of the former principality), a significant portion of Ghulkin, Sisuni (now named as Hussani) and Passu while Shishkat and Ayeenabad were pasturages of Gulmit and not settled at that time. http://blog.travel-culture.com/2010/03/11/could-hunza-river-blockage-become-a-catastrophe-for-pakistan/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1q5c7q-EBo&feature=player_embedded
See this magnificent NASA picture which shows the lake in graphic detail
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43175&src=imgrss
The Atabad (fka Ghareyat village) Land Sliding has blocked the flow of Hunza River– one of the fastest and coldest flowing rivers in the world. There is danger of a breach in the artificially formed dam. The Karakorum Highway faces a grave danger from gushing waters–if the natural dam breaks and the water gushes down the Indus Valley at tremendous speed. The naturally formed glacial lake threatens to wash away villages and much of the Karakorum Highway–Pakistan’s link to China and Central Asia. The situation is being monitored by the Army, and world and Pakistani experts.
One of the most important bridges on Karakoram Highway (KKH) that links Pakistan with China, the Shishkat Bridge submerged into the Lake on Hunza River after two months of Attabad Disaster which has blocked the fast flowing Hunza River. It was second longest bridge on Karakorum High Way and first is Danyour Bridge. Because of submerging of the bridge the settlements of Shiskat and Ayeenabad have turned into Islands as they have lost any dry land connections with the rest of the world. Source Gilgit Baltistan Times
ISLAMABAD, March 9: Breaches in the 15km-long and 60 metre-deep lake that was formed after a landslide in Hunza could wreak havoc all the way down to Tarbela dam.
Fearing a disaster, the environment ministry has called for preparation of an emergency plan to cope with a possible flood which may affect the population and infrastructure along the Hunza/Indus river valley from Attabad to Tarbela.
The Chinese have a lot of experience in this sort of problem and Chinese Engineers are on site.
Villages in Pakistan’s paradisaical Hunza Valley face threats of flash floods and landslides from a glacial lake that has been growing dramatically since last month.Matthew Tabaccos for The National
The entire army, and the Central government is dealing with the impending catastrophe. The Army Corps of Engineers is building a canal which would siphon off the excess water in an attempt to drain the lake.
ISLAMABAD // Army engineers are battling against time and the threat of seismic shakes to save a 500km stretch of northern Pakistan from being devastated by a potential flash flood.
The threat has been building since January 4, when a massive landslide temporarily dammed a river in the mountainous area of Hunza, widely believed to be the inspiration for the fictional kingdom of Shangri-La, creating a lake that continues to rise steadily.
The landslide removed 120 metres of mountainside, destroyed the village of Ata-abad, killing 19 residents, isolated 25,000 residents upriver from the landslide-dam, and severed a two-kilometre stretch of the Karakorum Highway, Pakistan’s only land link with China.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Secretary Babar Fateh Yaqoob and Home Secretary Mohammad Usman informed the meeting that spillways had been raised and emergency arrangements made to cope with the situation. Measures like relocation of the affected people, monitoring of alert systems and availability of fund, food and medicines were under way, they said.
The meeting called for safety of downstream communities, constant monitoring of the water level in dam, effective communication and evacuation plans and development of an early warning system and a 24-hour monitoring service.
The meeting urged the government to seek assistance and expertise from China to mitigate the threat. Dawn
The temporary lake, fed by glacia meltwaters, has since grown dramatically, and now stretches 15km back from the blockage, and is more than 70 metres deep.
Engineers of the army’s Frontier Works Organisation have been working since last month on the construction of a spillway that authorities hope will gradually drain the water.
Scientists said the lake could grow to 20km in length by the onset of summer as, from April onwards, rising temperatures would significantly increase glacial melt and water flow into the lake.
Although the scientists, who have surveyed the site, have endorsed the engineers’ strategy, they warn that the instability of the dam made the eventual outcome unpredictable and potentially disastrous. The 900-metre-long mass of landslide debris that formed the dam is largely made up of powder-like sediments.
David Petley, director of the International Landslide Centre at Durham University in the United Kingdom said: “The most likely scenario is that the water will flow over the dam when it reaches the top. The other scenario is that the overflow could wash away the top of the dam, after which there would be rapid erosion and collapse. It’s very difficult to forecast.
“It would be a prudent conclusion to assume the worst when the water reaches the top, at which point it would be sensible to evacuate all the people downstream.”
Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) has been been given the task of removal of debris of landslide under the technical supervision of NESPAK.
The federal minister said that engineers of the World Bank have also been invited for inspection of the site and expert opinion. He said the work on release of water was being done in the light of world Banks advice.
Governor also stated that there are no chances of breach of lake but if required the Government was fully prepared to deal with any situation. G-B Times
Lake at Hunza River Source: http://blog.travel-culture.com
He stressed that a flash flood was “by no means an inevitability”, but historical evidence and a report submitted by Nespak, a state engineering firm, have highlighted the potential for disaster.
The National Disaster Management Authority, which is overseeing recovery efforts in Hunza, has told local legislators that the collapse of the dam would send a 20-metre-high tsunami-like flash flood crashing down the Hunza Valley.
In that event, the water would sweep down from an altitude of nearly 2,500 metres, being replenished by first the Gilgit River and then the Indus, before hurtling down the narrow northern stretches of the Indus Valley towards the Tarbela Dam, 40km north-west of Islamabad.
British colonial records from the 19th century report that two similar incidents caused flash floods that killed several thousand people and inundated huge areas of modern Pakistan.
The force of the flash flood would wreak catastrophic damage, destroying all communities and infrastructure, including most of the Karakorum Highway, a marvel of modern engineering built between 1966 and 1978 that ended centuries of isolation for the people of the region, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, the scientists said.
The environment minister asked the authorities concerned to prepare a foolproof plan if the lake burst out. “Lives of the people are important for us. We need a comprehensive study and plan for expected damage and rescue efforts,” Mr Afridi said, adding that he would seek support from the Chinese government to release water from Hunza river. The water level in the lake had risen to 213 feet on Tuesday and was rising by two feet daily. The situation will become more dangerous with increased inflow after melting of snow as temperature usually rises by at least four degree Celsius in April.
The meeting was informed that people living up to a height of 50 feet would be vulnerable. Moreover, the increase in water flow in coming months would aggravate the threat if water already accumulated was not released, it was told. APP
Army at Hunza slide creating a secure spillway so that Hunza Lake can be flow down the spillway; Source of picture: http://blog.travel-culture.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/army-d-at-hunza-slide.jpg
The region is also among the most seismically active in the world because it is located at the junction of the Asian and Indian geological plates, where the Himalaya, Karakorum and Hindu Kush mountain ranges meet.
Work is on to clear the Karakoram Highway. Matthew Tabaccos for The National
Much of it sits upon an island plate squeezed between the two continental landmasses, when they collided hundreds of millions of years ago.
Chinese Engineers on site of Hunza Lake. Picture from Gilgit Baltistan Times
Hunza (Bashir): A team of 14 experts of Engineers from China arrived to Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan in order to open the blockage of Hunza River and KKH. Because of Attabad Land sliding of January 4, the flow of Hunza river blocked and it has formed lake extending to the villages of Ayeenabad and Shishkat.
Until now tens of houses in thousands kanals of agricultural land and trees have been submerged into the Lake of Hunza River and hundreds of individual displaced. It is fear that if the Hunza river remained block it would further damage homes, and property of of the people in Ayeenabad, Shiskat and Gulmit, so it was forcefully demanded by the people of Hunza to open the blockage of the river immediately. Now the Chinese engineers are in Hunza and it is hoped that the blockage of the river will start soon.
7 member of the team would work on blockage of the river and the other 7 engineers along with the engineers who are currently working on the repair and maintenance of KKH will work on opening the KKH. Gilgit-Baltistan Times
The danger of a massive landslide at Ataabad had been apparent since February 2003, when a huge crack appeared in the terrain four months after an earthquake hit the region, the officials said.
Authorities have since been urging residents to relocate, but they have refused to move unless they were provided with alternative residential and farming land.
Officials, backed by community-based non-government organisations sponsored by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Hunza’s predominantly Ismaili population, finally persuaded people living at higher altitudes to move just days before the landslide.
The weight of evidence last week prompted Hameed-ullah Jan Afridi, Pakistan’s environment minister, to order preparation of an emergency plan, including mass evacuations.
A proposal for pumping the water using a high pressure pump for the safe passage of the water without any serious damage to the environment of the effected area has been proposed by some Professors from Japan Pamir Times
“Preparations must start immediately,” he said in an official statement.
However, local politicians said the government had wasted vital time dithering, unwisely focusing all initially on relief efforts and issuing unrealistic estimates on how long it would take to remove the debris before finally deciding who would undertake the mammoth task.
Beautiful but very deadly Hunza Lake: Picture taken from Pamir Times. Picture taken by by Zulfiqar
Nazir Sabir, a local politician and Pakistan’s premier mountaineer, said:
“There were serious errors in understanding the longer-term threats posed by the artificial lake and formulating a strategy based on the right perspective.
“There was too much bureaucracy, both in terms of decision making and assignment of blame [for the landslide], for due attention to be paid to the complicated process of debris removal.” Race to save Pakistan’s ‘Shangri-La’ valley from devastating flash flood, Tom Hussain, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: March 16. 2010 12:36AM UAE / March 15. 2010 8:36PM GMT
thussain@thenational.ae
ISLAMABAD, Mar 8 (APP): President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday sought a report from Governor Gilgit Baltistan over the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken for the landslide affectees of Atta Abad in the Hunza valley and steps for the draining of an artificial lake.The massive landslide had hit Hunza District on January 4, that led to the sliding of two villages including Atta Abad into the Hunza River. The landslide wiped-out everything in its path and the debris fell down into the Hunza River, blocking its water flow. Pamir Times
History is repeating itself.
The lake outburst of 1858 thus destroyed the settlements along the basins of Hunza and Indus Rivers. After reaching Attock, the giant storm sent a reverse wave in the Kabul River beyond Nawshira. Prof Dr. Kenneth Hewitt, a prominent Canadian professor Emeritus of Geography in Waterloo University reflects:
“The 1858 flood wave was still massive at Attock. In fact it sent a reverse wave up the Kabul River about 50km. Reports after 1858 suggest the flood wave reached 10-20m above high summer flows along the Gilgit and Indus, and caused erosion of river terraces ‘100s of feet’ back from the channel.”http://blog.travel-culture.com/2010/03/11/could-hunza-river-blockage-become-a-catastrophe-for-pakistan/
