Passengers and boat operators playing with risk in Gojal Valley
Haider Ali
Hunza, February 5: Passengers traveling to and from the Gojal Valley are playing with risks every day. The risks increase in the winters when the dammed Hunza River’s surface freezes, making it difficult for the boats to operate.
Passengers and boat operators, putting themselves at critical risk, have to manually break the lake’s frozen surface to move forward, inch by inch.
The passengers have been wearing safety jackets for the last couple of weeks. However, apart from the safety jackets there is no other safety measure in place to reduce the risk of disasters.
These boats carry people of all age as well as patients from Gojal Valley who have no other option available to reach health facilities in Aliabad or Gilgit. There’s shortage of health facilities in the Gojal Valley due to which a lot of people have to travel outside the region to get medical attention.
