Melted glacier floods village creating artificial lake in Gilgit-Baltistan

The village of Barsuwat Nullah was turned into an artificial lake in Gilgit-Baltistan after a small glacier melted in the Ishkoman Valley on Thursday.

The village situated in Ghizer district’s Ishkoman valley near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was turned into an artificial lake subsequent to the blockage of the ImmitRiver due to a melted glacier.

The creation of the lake came with several difficulties for locals in the village of Barsuwat with demolition of houses, submergences of numerous kanals of cultivated land and several crops left impaired.

Reports have also emerged of villages being trapped in numerous locations with the continuation of landslides resulting in the upper parts of the region facing obstructions as well.

Authorities in the area have had complaints filed against them by inhabitants for providing no aid.

Previously in January of 2010, an approximate of 20 people had lost their lives after a landslide blocked the Hunza River, concluding to the creation of the Attabad Lake which ended up intensifying 23 kilometers further taking into its gasp four villages of Ainabad, Shishkat, Gulmit and Gulkin. Due to the avalanche a fundamental trade link to China in the shape of Karakoram Highway (KKH) was also barricaded, desisting 26,000 inhabitants of the Gojal Valley.