Hunza lake expected to spill by May 28

The Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Retired Lt General Nadeem Ahmed said water outflow from the Hunza lake is expected to spill over on May 28.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority, 2050 cusecs water is entering the lake due to melting glaciers while the water release is 197 cusecs.

Landslides are also expected as the water level in the lake has increased to 3.1 feet in the last 24 hours.

The Hunza Deputy Commissioner Zafar Waqar Taj said that lake water had inundated low-lying areas and the rate of increase in the lake’s water level had been steady. People from the 32 flooded villages have been evacuated and are not allowed to go back. All downstream villages have been evacuated.

The government of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa province has been asked by Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority to prepare for a possible emergency in the districts of Shangla, Mansehra, Kala Dhaka and Kohistan, downstream from the Hunza Nagar district.

The region is under threat from flooding from a lake that formed after a landslide. Villages in Hunza-Nagar are reported to have been flooded. According to the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance NGO operating in the area, villages in the Kohistan district are under threat, with some 30,000 to 50,000 people possibly vulnerable. The district has a scattered population of about 500,000, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, a medical team sent by the Punjab government is also arriving in Hunza today, while air service stands operational to provide relief goods and food to the affectees.

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Downstream villages evacuated as Attabad water level rises

HUNZA: Authorities have evacuated more downstream villages as water level in the Attabad lake continues to rise and a breach seems imminent.

Different organisations involved in monitoring the lake have been providing contradictory figures regarding the top difference between the spillway and water level in the lake.

However, the administration of Hunza Nagar claimed there is a difference of 11 feet.

Officials said the water will be spilling out of the lake in another three to four days at a level of 210 cusecs. Adding to this, glaciers are expected to melt due to hot weather.

Meanwhile, residents of Hunza nagar, Gilgit, Diamirand Chalas have been shifted to safer places.

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A LANDSLIDE…AND NEW LAKE IN HUNZA

But not a nice one…a huge potentially unstable one that is growing daily after a major landslide, just 10km north of the flying site in Karimabad. Miracuously, only 19 people have been reported dead, but for them and their village this is a major disaster…look at the precariousness of the situation at http://pamirtimes.net/

It appears the lake has another 82 vertical metres to grow before the spillage point…and if the new dam wall is unstable it will be a huge volume of water that could engulf the valley down stream.Already villages are becoming submerged in the new lake. I really feel for the people of Hunza, and hope the water can be released before it becomes much higher.
and this is it coming down onto the KKH…photo first published by PAMIR TIMES…and found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/01/100129_hunza_landslide_pic_rh.shtml along with many others…the dam wall looks alot more than 83m to me,knowing how big the terrain really is…and there was a village up there…this is so bad.

the dam wall is more clearly seen from the sky. The rubble is lying along the valley,creating a more stable dam i would guess, and less likely to erode quickly once the water starts flowing again,although that stuff the dam is made off is probably fine sand at best, maybe even ‘talcum powder’, plus massive rocks. But at least the height of the dam doesnt look so monstous from the air…phew.

Lets hope the stuff still hanging stays put for a while

Houses in the village of Shishket are slowly being submerged…this is the village of Manzoors wife (she is fleetingly seen in Birdman )…must be worrying.

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