Visible cracks have formed in and around the spillway as the amount of water discharged from the Attabad Lake doubled on Wednesday, officials said.

On January 4, 2010, a landslide dammed the Hunza River in northern Pakistan, creating a lake that threatened to overflow its earthen dam and flood downstream communities. By mid-March 2010, the lake was 7 miles long. By early May, the lake had expanded well beyond its mid-March extent. As spring progressed, warmer temperatures began melting snow, which raised the rate of inflow to the lake.

What has been happening with the Hunza landslide is utterly catastrophic in terms of its natural as well as human impacts. This is a real calamity with real human victims and one that has already put the lives and livelihoods of not dozens but thousands of people at real risk today and will do so more in the future.

Spread across more than 23 kilometres upwards of Attabad to Gojal, the landslide-triggered lake is now 370 feet deep, and, locals said, inundated another 12 houses, a community centre and five shops in Gulmit and Shishkat villages on Wednesday. They said that the surging lake is now inching towards Passu village, about 35 kilometres from Attabad. The Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Mehdi Shah, visited the Gojal areas on Wednesday to distribute checks among people who had been stranded since the Karakoram Highway was blocked five months ago. At least 25,000 people in Gojal have been cut off after the landslide swept away parts of Karakoram Highway in January. In other measures, Federal Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan Affairs Mian Manzoor Wattoo announced a free food package for the stranded people of Gojal last night. A 24-hour radio station has also been set up in Hunza, which is covering the situation at the Attabad Lake in detail.

Minhaj Welfare Foundation has set up Emergency Aid bases where it will provide Food, Clothing, Shelter, Medicine, Clean Drinking Water, etc. Please give generously towards this appeal.

For Donations:

§ By Credit Cards please ring: Please ring (01282) – 723456

§ By cheque payable to: MWF, 12 Carr Rd, Nelson, Lancs. BB9 7JS

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