Melting away

With the melting of glaciers in Gilgit-Baltistan, people too are losing their homes as they are swept away by waters which create flash floods which have carried away roads, bridges, crops and forests as well. The last such disaster occurred in July, when a glacial lake burst near Bat Swat village at the foothills of the Hindu Kush range. Pakistan has more glaciers than any other country outside the polar region – more than 7,200 located in the Karakoram, Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges. The Pakistan Met Office has warned of more disasters over the coming years due to glacial melts. Rising temperatures and global climate change is thought to be responsible for this. As the glaciers retreat due to higher temperatures, they leave behind lakes, badly supported by ice dams or rock which are unstable and often burst, sending water tumbling into the villages below. Providing aid for the 1,000 or so residents of Bat Swat affected by the most recent crisis was particularly difficult given the rough roads and the mountainous terrain. In 2010, the creation of Attabad Lake in Gojal Valley, Hunza due to similar factors killed 20 people in Attabad village and left hundreds others trapped as the lake had formed across the road.

While rising temperatures are one factor in this, poor government management adds to the problems. The cutting of forests, the failure to conserve natural habitats and lack of development which forces people to cut trees for construction and fuel have all contributed to landslides and flash floods. The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development along with the Aga Khan Foundation is working on the problem. But there can be no instant solutions. Climate change and global warming, alongside the degradation of habitats, need to be taken seriously by governments and citizens. Our failure to do will only result in more disaster over the coming years. Already we see entire slopes denuded of trees in many of our northern areas. There is also extremely limited awareness about global warming, and even though Pakistan is not a major contributor to this, we can still put in place government policies to campaign harder for international measures to control the problem. As a result of industrial emissions from China, India and other countries spread across the region, our people suffer. The glacial melts are just one symptom of a problem which is multiplying rapidly.