Attabad Lake – Disaster Management Fails, Villagers Threaten Intervention
Chinese Offer to Solve Attabad Lake Problem Finally Accepted
Early warning systems in disaster risk management
Multifaceted Intervention Practices
In Defense of Non-Intervention
The deadline is over and so is the patience of the local population which is at risk from the teeming disaster of Attabad Lake in Hunza. The displaced people of the endangered areas surrounding the lake had set a 10-day period for government’s efforts to drain the lake safely. As the deadline expired on Monday, these villagers are now getting ready for self-help efforts and drain the lake themselves. But will the government allow it?
News sources tell that the government would not allow people to undertake any such adventure and if needed, section 144 may even be enforced in the area. The National Disaster management Authority (NDMA) had earlier assured the villagers of widening the lake’s spillway and through the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) explosives were used to widen the lake’s spillway for increasing the outflow. But the effort failed to produce the expected results.
Villagers were told that the outflow has increased by less than half of what was expected by the NDMA. The villagers are now desperate since their lives and properties are already at risk. However, the authorities won’t allow any risky undertaking by the villagers. They assure that no more villages will come under water because the outflow is now large enough to maintain a safe level of water in the surrounding villages.
