KEY POINTS
- Flood-affected people spend the night under open sky
- Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister visits affected area
ISLAMABAD: Floodwaters spilling from an artificial lake formed after Friday’s Glacial Lake Outburst (GLOF) in Raushan Village in Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan province have damaged several houses in Moula Abad village downstream, officials said on Saturday, posing a risk to at least sixty more homes, a school and a mosque.
More than 300 houses and dozens of shops were damaged following Friday’s tragedy, according to an initial government assessment issued on Saturday.
At least two residents of Moula Abad village told WE News English that a wedding was ongoing at one of the homes that was destroyed on Friday evening after floodwaters began spilling from the lake, forcing the bride and her family to abandon the wedding and evacuate.
“Under the open sky”
Fariza Khan, a resident of Moula Abad village, said she was forced to spend the night under the open sky with her ailing mother and 73-year-old father due to the lack of a shelter, contradicting official claims of shifting the residents of affected areas to a shelter village.
“After spending at least 24 hours under the sky, we were forced to go back to our home by around 3am due to my mother’s deteriorating condition, knowing that it posed a threat given the persistent erosion at the upper end of the settlement,” she said.
Fariza’s village is located right opposite the Tali Das village that was directly impacted by the landslides that blocked the Ghizer River, and is the first village to be hit by the floodwaters flowing from the newly-formed water body.
The creation of the artificial lake submerged several villages and a four-kilometre stretch of the under-construction Gilgit-Chitral Expressway, causing severe financial losses and displacement.
However, no loss of human life was reported.
330 houses destroyed
A report by the district administration issued earlier Saturday stated the flood affected a total of 330 houses in Tali Das, Maduri, Moula Abad, Hakis Thingi, Raushan and Baro Singal villages, while several shops also suffered heavy losses.
Mobile network remained suspended in the areas affected by the landslides, the artificial lake and the spilling water.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Gupis Yasin said tents, rations and other essential relief items were urgently required for displaced families.
Call for relief efforts
Flood affectees said relief efforts needed to be accelerated.
Gilgit Baltistan Social Welfare Department Deputy Director Ahmad Khan said the need for relief efforts to be increased was crucial, given the scale of devastation.
Upper areas of the Ghizer district have been isolated due to the floods, he said.
“Friday’s devastation has led to a shortage of essential items in the area, and the government is trying to assist the residents,” Ahmad said.
Authorities confirmed that water was now flowing out of the artificial lake through a natural spillway.
Senior Ghizer official Sher Afzal said some upstream houses remained submerged, but the feared inundation of thousands more had been averted once the spillway opened.
He cautioned that it would still take time for floodwaters to drain from already affected homes.
Water body remains unstable
Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan visited the affected areas with provincial ministers and directed the mobilisation of all available resources for rescue and relief operations, GB Government Spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said.
Authorities warned that the water body at Raushan remains unstable and could still breach under pressure.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has maintained a high alert in glaciated regions, with fresh rains forecast from Saturday.
The Ghizer disaster is the latest in a series of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) striking northern Pakistan this season.
Four confirmed incidents have already damaged homes, crops and road links in the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Experts warn that rising temperatures are accelerating glacier melt, increasing the risk of such events in the future.
