People decry govt inaction as lake threat rises | Dawn News

HUNZA, Jan 23: It is 23 days since the massive landslide hit Atabad village, blocking the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the only land link between China and Pakistan, bringing to a halt the civic and commercial life in Gojal. With the passage of time, shops, stores, and health units are running out of stocks of food and other daily use items and medicines.

An artificial lake has formed on the Hunza River inundating a number of villages in Gojal. The rise in the level of lake water is endangering thousands of lives upstream and downstream in other parts of Hunza-Nagar and Gilgit districts.

The people while praising government for its quick relief operation and airlifting of food to Gojal are highly critical of the pace of work in releasing the lake water.

“There is a threat of sudden outburst of the lake,” said an official involved in the relief operation and monitoring of the post-disaster situation quoting a latest report prepared by Wapda experts. “The outburst of the lake can generate a wave of 20 to 30 meters high which can wipe out settlements and installations downstream,”

More: http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=24_01_2010_184_001

Attabad Hunza Jamat Khana Pictures after the landslide of Jan 4, 2010

Zulfiqar Ali Khan, Jan 25, 2010

Attabad JamatKhana pic taken after Jan 2010 landslide	Attabad JamatKhana pic taken after Jan 2010 landslide
Attabad JamatKhana pic taken after Jan 2010 landslide	Attabad JamatKhana pic taken after Jan 2010 landslide
Diamond Jubilee School Attabad pic taken after Jan 2010 landslide	Diamond Jubilee School Attabad still survives near the edge of the slided portion of the village
The Upper Attabad Jamat Khana survived at the safe portion of the village whereas the JamatKhana in Lower Attabad buried beneath the debris of the devastating landslides of Jan 04

Related blog posts at Ismailimail and other blogs on WordPress
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/tag/landslide/
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/attabad/
For up-to-date reporting, visit http://pamirtimes.net/

Four villages directly affected by landslide in Hunza

Thursday, January 14, 2010 – According to initial disaster assessment report, four villages — Attabad Payeen, Attabad Bala, Sarat and Ayeenabad — were directly affected by the massive landslide in Hunza where thirteen people, including women and children, have been reported dead, while nine are injured and six are still missing.

The initial report has been compiled by Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) which is a crisis response and disaster risk management agency established in Europe, North America and South and Central Asia.

—snip—The survey and hazard assessment report were shared with the Gilgit-Baltistan government, due to which 25 households were evacuated from Attabad Bala to relocate to safer locations in March 2009.

via Four villages directly affected by landslide in Hunza – TheNews.

Monster slide in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley leaves tens of thousands winter-stranded

(K2Climb.net) As rescuers race to find survivors in Haiti, Simone Moro alerts about a natural disaster that passed largely un-noticed by media last week: a massive landslide swept four villages in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley, dammed up the Hunza river with a severe risk of flooding, cut off parts of KKH and left tens of thousands to survive the winter without supplies.

via Everest – Mount Everest by climbers, news.

Press Release: Focus Humanitarian Assistance Provides Relief for Landslide Victims in Hunza, Pakistan

Attabad Village, Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, 13 January 2010 – Focus Humanitarian Assistance is providing relief to four villages in northern Pakistan that were struck by a devastating landslide on 4 January 2010.

According to initial disaster assessment reports, Attabad Payeen, Attabad Bala, Sarat and Ayeenabad were directly affected by the massive landslide in Hunza valley, which killed thirteen people and injured nine others.

via akdn.org – Related

FOCUS playing leading role in relief operations at Attabad Hunza

by Zulfiqar Ali Khan

HUNZA, January 12: Pakistan chapter of the The Focus Humanitarian Assistance agency, an affiliate of AKDN, is playing a leading role in the relief operations for the affected people of the devastating landslide in Attaabad Hunza that killed 19 people and displaced over 1500 others.

“We have provided relief goods of more than 12.5 million to the affected people”, said Salmanuddin, a representative of the FOCUS while talking to media persons at a camp in Altit.

via Pamirtimes.

The Ismaili: Fatal landslide in Hunza Valley threatens to flood villages

A massive landslide in the Hunza Valley on 4 January damaged and buried the villages of Attabad Payeen, Attabad Bala and Sarat in the northern Pakistan territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, killing at least 19 people and rendering over 250 families homeless.

Debris and boulders from the landslide have blocked the Hunza River and the Karakorum Highway, the main transportation route in the area. Rising water levels present a growing threat to neighbouring villages both upstream and downstream from the disaster area, and some 20 000 people in the upper part of the valley have been cut off from their major supply route, threatening a shortage of food and other necessities.

More : http://www.theismaili.org/cms/929/ and http://www.akdn.org/Content/952

President Ismaili National Council Pakistan visits disaster hit areas of Hunza

January 12, 2009 – by Zulfiqar Ali Khan: Iqbal Walji, President Ismaili National Council for Pakistan, Chairperson FOCUS Pakistan Khatija Shahban, Vice Chairman FOCUS Hanif Farista visited disaster hit areas of Hunza. Briefing was given by Dr. Khawaja Khan, President Ismaili Regional Council for Hunza.

AKBPS rep briefing National Council President on organisational activities	President Ismaili National Council getting briefing in Altit camp
President Ismaili NC and team offering Dua	FOCUS volunteers informing Chairperson & Deputy Executive Officer about the search and rescue activities

Further coverage at Pamirtimes.net
Donate in Attabad Hunza Relief Fund
Landslide victims of Gojal Valley running out of food supplies
FOCUS surveys had highlighted the grave threat to Attabad

Hunza river water rises 4 metres in 24 hours | Dawn.com

By Zulfiqar Ali Khan Saturday, 09 Jan, 2010

A displaced women with her child in a camp in Altit

HUNZA, Jan 8: The hope for survival of six persons trapped under the debris of landslide faded as search operation was closed on Friday.

Geologists and experts from the Focus Humanitarian and Wapda have visited the affected area to find ways for release of water as the Hunza River has been blocked.

Ismaili Boy Scouts on relief operation duty

Talking to Dawn, an expert said that the water level of the 5km lake was increasing by about 4 metres in 24 hours. He said the water was 20-55 meters below the lower parts of Ayeenabad settlement in Gojal and it could inundate about nine houses in five to six days. He said the water could also submerge the Karakoram Highway (KKH) at different locations.

Similarly, search and rescue operation at the disaster site has been halted after failing to recover the bodies of six missing persons. According to the information cell in Altit, the names of the missing persons are: Essa Khan, 75; Ghulam Madi, 55; Shamim Bano, 45; Abbas Ali, 38; and Faizan Karim, 7.

President IRC Hunza briefing Marvi Mamon, member National Assembly

Those whose bodies were recovered on the first day are: Nine-month-old Faisal; Shehzadi, 7; Saleem Khan, 10; Iram Bano, 10; Alhan Karim, 12; Wasim Khan, 12; Sultan Karim, 13; Sultana Bano, 16; Salma Bano, 17; Sheri Bano, 21; Shahina Parveen, 21; Sulaimani, 49; Niyat Begum, 65; and Essa Khan, 75.

Meanwhile, public representatives and top officials of Gilgit-Baltistan visited relief camps established for the affected families at Altit. Experts also visited the disaster site and assessed the lake formed upstream of the landslide site on Hunza River.

“It will take about three weeks to release water from the lake forming on Hunza River due to the massive land movements in Atabad village,” said Babar Yaqub, chief secretary Gilgit-Baltistan, during visit to the relief camps.

President Ismaili Regional Council Hunza briefing Chief Sec Gilgit-Baltistan

Speaker Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) Wazir Baig, Member GBLA Yasmeen Nazar, renowned mountaineer Nazir Sabir were also present on the occasion.

He said that engineers of Wapda, army and National Highway Authority were jointly devising strategies in this regards. “Our top priority is to save the expected losses due to the blockade of river in Gojal or due to the sudden break in low lying areas,” he added.

The chief secretary said the federal government had instructed them to provide food and other basic items through the Utility Stores outlets at Gulmit and Sost in Gojal tehsil.

Member National Assembly Marvi Memon, Member GBLA Mirza Hussain also visited the disaster-hit area and relief camps.

http://www.dawn.com/

Landslide disaster at Attabad – Hunza

By Noor Muhammad ⋅ January 7, 2010

The worst happened on January 4 when the already cracked mountain located above a beautiful, tiny, hamlet called Attabad slid off and buried most of the village, along with the people who had chosen to live in it, its cattle, houses, fields and orchards. The land mass that slid off has completely blocked the Hunza River gorge. More than two kilometers of the gorge through which the river once flowed is now filled with sand and rocks over, turning the river into an expanding lake, posing great risk to the low-lying villages of Gojal Valley.

More than two and a half kilometers of the Karakuram Highway has been completely destroyed, disconnecting Gojal Valley from the rest of Hunza. This blockade has severe implications for life in Gojal valley, as the supply of food, medicines and other essentials is not likely to take place till complete opening of the road. The government will have to seriously work on air – supply of such essentials of life.

–snip–

The role of FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance, an affiliated institution of AKDN, is also highly appreciable because it trained, organized and equipped groups of local people to work in the times of disaster, enabling them to work on their own in a more organized manner. This is despite of the fact that the onus of governance and community empowerment primarily rests with the state and not the non – governmental organizations.

http://pakistandesk.com/?p=3631

Landsliding disaster in Attabad Hunza

http://pamirtimes.net/2010/01/06/pictory-day-ii-of-disaster-at-attabad-ghareyat/

Earlier related

Rescue efforts in Pamir-Tajikistan and Hunza-Pakistan

Few links on the latest:

http://www.hunzatimes.com/archives/4026
http://pamirtimes.net/the-disaster-at-attabad-ghareyat/

http://www.google.com/afp/
http://www.rferl.org/content/Relief_Efforts