ATTABABD LAKE
Attabad Lake, Gojal, also known as Gojal Lake, is a lake in the Gojal Valley of Gilagit Baltistan Pakistan created in January 2010 by a landslide.
LOCATION: 19 km East of Hunza, in the remote Hunza River Valley of Gilagit Baltistan Pakistan, a massive landslide buried the village of Attabad, destroying 26 homes, killing 20 people, and damming up the Hunza River and a newly formed Attabad lake was created..
FORMATION OF LAKE: The lake was formed due to a massive landslide at Attabad village in Gilgit-Baltistan, 9 miles (14 km) upstream (east) of Karimabad that occurred on January 4, 2010. All type of traffic on KKH to and from China was disconnected. In next few days, Attabad Lake was converted into a dam with 130-200 m depth and 22 km length. If this dam was left to be further filled, it would have resulted into a “Dam burst scenario” and would have been the worst disaster of the world. In case of the dam burst, the flow of water downhill towards Gilgit would have been so massive that most of the bridges and villages astride river Hunza would have been completely washed away.
DISASTROUS IMPACT CREATED: The landslide, causing the formation of Attabad Lake, killed twenty people and blocked the flow of the Hunza River for five months. The lake flooding has displaced 6,000 people from upstream villages, stranded (from land transportation routes) a further 25,000, and inundated over 12 miles (19 km) of the Karakoram Highway. The lake reached 13 miles (21 km) long and over 100 metres in depth by the first week of June 2010 when it began flowing over the landslide dam, completely submerging lower Shishkat and partly flooding Gulmit. The subdivision of Gojal has the greatest number of flooded buildings, over 170 houses and 120 shops. The residents also had shortages of food and other items due to the blockage of the Karakoram Highway.
SITUATION AFTER THE DISASTROUS LANDSLIDE: As a result of the damming of Hunza River, five villages north of the barrier were flooded. One village, Ayeenabad, was completely submerged. Major portions of another village, Shishkat, was also submerged. Around 40% of the village of Gulmit, which also serves as the headquarter of Gojal Valley, was also submerged. Significant portions of land in Hussain and Ghulkin villages of Gojal also got submerged as a result of the surging lake. The entire population of Gojal valley, up to 25000 individuals, were affected as a result of the lake, due to blockade of road access, difficulties in
reaching to markets, loss of land, houses and agricultural products. Attabad has been visited by current and former Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gillani and Nawaz Sharif, and by the Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Sharif announced Rs100 million of aid for the victims from the Punjab government and Rs0.5 million for the relatives of those who died in the landslide. Areas downstream from the lake remained on alert despite some officials believing that a major flood scenario was less likely as the river began flowing over the landslide dam during the first week of June 2010. Many people have been evacuated to 195 relief camps.
DISASTROUS IMPACT ON ETHNICITYE: The Gojal Valley, which is worst affected as a result of this lake, is home to three rare ethnic groups, namely Wakhi (80%), Burushaski (18%) and Domaki (2%). The entire population of Domaki speakers, a very tiny minority and historically marginalized community, was displaced from their village (Shishkat). The Wakhi and Burushaski speaking minority ethnic groups have also been affected severely as a result of the disaster.
FIRST SUGGESTION BY CHINIES: Trench mortar technique to deepen the spillway by 30 meter with the cost of 2.4 billion rupees and many years were required to complete it.
SECOND SUGGESTION: Reduction of water through syphon method in which a number of pipes were to be used to drain out the water but this technique was also not suitable due to nature of terrain / mountains.
Since none of the International Engineers firms were ready to take the contract considering high investments and danger to human life; Planning Commission awarded the contract of lowering the water level by 30 m, to FWO. During the low flow season from Oct 2011 to May 2012, FWO was successful in lowering the lake water by 16 meter, much faster than the estimated time given to Planning Division. Till date FWO has sacrificed three precious lives including one Colonel for the accomplishment of his sacred task but to the positive side 7 kilometres of Karakoram Highway, entire Shishkat Bridge, 466 hectares of land and 327 buildings have been reclaimed as a result of lowering of water level.
EVENTS:
Jan 2010: A huge landslide led to formation of Attabad Lake. Attabad Lake was converted into a dam with 130-200 m depth and 22 km length.
Jan 2010: Government of Pakistan asked Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to control the situation. FWO mobilized its maximum resources to deal with this natural disaster. It constructed spillway immediately to curtail further storage of water into the lake, thus reducing the overall damage by 50%.
Jan 2010: Government of Pakistan asked Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to control the situation. FWO mobilized its maximum resources to deal with this natural disaster. It constructed spillway immediately to curtail further storage of water into the lake, thus reducing the overall damage by 50%.
Oct 2010: Planning Commission awards the contract of lowering the water level by 30 m, to FWO.
May 2011: Authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan are considering converting the Attabad lake into a hatchery for breeding a variety of fish. The idea is to breed a variety of fish in the lake, including trout which is a premium breed. A team has been deputed to conduct a survey of the lake and submit recommendations regarding its feasibility.
Year 2010 to Year 2013: No efforts by Government to come with a permanent solution to reconstruct the damaged Karakorum Highway (KKH). Ferries transport goods and vehicles from one part of the damaged KKH to the other, charging an ungodly amount of 18,000 PKR for a car, for one way. This is not only expansive for the travelers and tourists but continues to be a constant hitch for the trade between Pakistan and China.
May 2013: A joint statement on comprehensive strategic cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is issue; of all one part of which was directed towards enhancing connectivity between China and Pakistan to accelerate work on the Attabad Lake blocking the Karakorum Highway (KKH), carry forward the project of the upgrading of the KKH and the national highway network post-flood rehabilitation project.
May 2013: CRBC, a Chinese road construction company, is working on constructing a tunnel from Attabad to Gojal as an alternative to the Karakoram Highway, part of which has submerged after a landslide formed a lake on the Hunza River.
ATTABAD LAKE FROZEN: Heavy snowfall and harsh winds, the Attabad boat service has been closed down. The lake has frozen and 25000 people have been stranded in the valley. Students, patients and professionals have been stuck there and more snowfall is expected in the coming days. People are facing problems to travel across the frozen lake.
WORLD LARGEST LAKES
ABSTRACT:The ongoing Climate change is affecting the Lake Chad water which sustains the lives of over eight million
people that are depending on it mostly pastoral farmers, fishermen, the Kanuri, Mbororo and the Tuareg
indigenous communities among others, and adaptation to this natural catastrophe or disaster is further
compounding the situation.
This research work discovered how the rate of deforestation, desertification and
hydro electric dams constructions among other human activities influenced by adaptation to this climate
change are increasing in the region and how its impacts are affecting the indigenous communities and other
rural dwellers living around the lake, this trend resulted in numbers of recommendations towards adapting to
this climate change while protecting millions of peoples from this ongoing disaster. Further this project
aimed at ensuring awareness at the international level so that experts, governments and all other
stakeholders can contribute to prevent the adverse effects of climate change and to ensure a stable
development of the Lake Chad Africa and the indigenous as well as other communities depending on this.
INTRODUCTION:
The “Lake Chad” is one of the world’s largest and most historical Lake located
in the Sahel region of Africa (lat. 12:30 N to 14:30 N and long. 13:00E to 15:30
E ) which is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change bordering
North-Eastern Nigeria, North-Western Cameroon, South-Eastern Niger and
South Western Chad republics. The lake was 25,000 km square in the 1940s as
indicated by the historians and some geo- archaeological and historical
evidences, the recent of which was the accidental discovery of an ancient Canoe dating back to over three thousand years (3000) located in about Six hundred
kilometers (600) away from the present day bank of the Lake in the Nigerian
Territory, in the year 1992 by a peasant farmer from the Kanuri inhabited desert
areas of Damaturu-Nigeria, while digging a well in quest of water for his
domestic activities as reported by Abubakar, B. (IJNA 37.2,2008), but due to the
continues incessant impacts of climate change in Africa which resulted in the
incessant drying of rivers especially those feeder rivers supplying over 90 % of
the Lake water like the River Shari in the republic of Cameroon and the river
Yobe in Nigeria has resulted those community living along the courses or banks
of the feeder rivers to be blocking the rivers from supplying the water in to the
Lake while trying to adapt to this climate change situation by building Dams
along these feeder rivers in quest of water for their irrigational activities as well
as other activities like the generation of Hydro electric city and other relevant
activities.
This situation has resulted in the reduction of the water of the Lake to
just 1800 km square and presently the Lake is at (lat. 12:50 N to 13:00 N and
long. 14:50 to 15:00 E). Hence this situation has already started causing
problems to the indigenous communities living around and depending on the
Lake for their survival, because there is increasing drop in fishing activities in
the lake as well as reduction in water supply for pastoral and irrigation farming
activities in addition to other secondary impacts like the increasing rate of ruralurban
migration, job loses and desert encroachments due to the growing
numbers of people running into the fire wood selling businesses which depends
on the deforestation of the shrubs and the little scattered trees serving as a
shelter belt between the Sahara desert located in the north of the Sahel region and
the fertile Lands.
1. Holding one of the world’s largest reserves of underground water, The
United Nations in collaboration with the governments of the member
countries of the “Lake Chad Commission” should jointly source for fund
and invest in redeveloping the Chad basin area, through modern irrigation
agriculture water project like the one commission in Libya in the early
1990’s.
in to the Atlantic Ocean and which was geographically thought to be
among the ancient or earlier major feeder rivers of the Lake in the past,
should be diverted to be flowing in to the Lake again.
3. The governments of the member countries of the Lake Chad Commission
in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the Economic
Community of the West African State (ECOWAS) should encourage and
attract foreign investment into the Lake Chad area to help revive the Lake.
4. The Lake Chad research institutes should be properly funded.
5. Non-agricultural investments should be encouraged in order to avoid the
growing pressure on fishing on the already drying lake.
6. Lake Chad University should be established by all or any of the
stakeholders in order to provide jobs, promote research and education for
the children of the inhabitants.
7. Since oil prospectors are already discovering new oil fields within the Lake
Chad Region as in the case of the Lake Chad basin areas of the republics of
Chad and Niger, the Lake Chad commission should ensure the employment
of the inhabitants of this area is given an upper priority in this new
emergent petroleum industries in order to reduce pressure and over
dependence on this Lake.
8. The United Nations Environmental Program and relevant stakeholders on
water issues should assist in their capacities and technical know-how in
preventing the pollution of the lake from the newly emergent petroleum
industries within the Lake Chad basin.
9. The indigenous communities should be mainstream into the decision
Making processes in reviving the lake as well as fighting climate change.
10. Expert on climate change should be organizing series of educative
Conferences, seminars, workshops and training on climate change and
adaptation.
I believe that if the above-mentioned suggestions /recommendations are adopted
and implemented it will help protect the Lake Chad from completely drying up
in one hand and save the lives of millions of people and animals depending on
the Lake for their survival which is facing the impacts of climate change.
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2 comments:
amizing
good job
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