Peshawar:
A 7km (4-mile) lake in Gilgit-Baltistan, created by a mountain lepers, threatens to blow up and loosen potentially “catastrophic” floods downstream, warned officials on Saturday.
The mud stream fell into the Main Ghizer River Channel and blocked it completely on Friday, creating the lake in Gilgit-Baltistan, National Disaster Management Authority said.
The blocking created a “women -like structure” that pose a significant threat of blasting, it said in a situation report from its provincial office.
The new lake “can cause a catastrophic flood,” said Zakir Hussain, Director General of Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
Four Downstream districts – Ghizer, Gilgit, Astore and Diamer – are facing a serious threat, he told Reuters.
Ghizer is located north of the mountain districts of northwestern Pakistan, where floods triggered by the worst of this year’s monsoon rain and skybursts have killed nearly 400 people since August 15.
A video shared by the national authority of a WhatsApp group where it issues statements shows black mud sliding down the mountain before landing in the river. Reuters could not independently verify the video, as an official at the authority said was recorded by the residents.
Similar mud streams landed in the river from various mountains, spokesman for the provincial government said Faizullah Faraq.
A higher soil shepherd, the first to spot the mud flow crashing, warned villagers and local authorities, he said. As a result of the warning, he said, nearly 200 people in dozens of scattered houses were hidden in the mountains and the river’s surroundings were rescued.
The lake has begun to print water, which means the threat of a burst goes back, but floods in flash in downstream districts cannot be excluded until the lake is completely cleared, Faraq said.
The communities downstream have been instructed to remain in high alarm and vacate areas along the river, he said.
