Pakistan
[Pictory] Shishkat – Gulmit Bridge in danger
Photo of the Shishkat – Gulmit Bridge taken 3 days ago. The bridge will submerge in the artificial lake within two weeks according to reliable sources. Submerging of the bridge would disconnect Shishkat from rest of the valley.
Courtesy: FOCUS Pakistan
This bridge is one of the most important and longest bridges in Gilgit on Karakoram Highway and sinking of the longest bridge is again showing the failure of government in releasing the water from Hunza River dam which have destroyed one village and in future will cause more damage.
it is indeed a shame for the government of Pakistan and it shows their carless attitude towards the area.
Dua for compassion:
If the bridge collapses it has longer and worse impact on Villages Gulmit onward.
It will take years to construct such a bridge. So the villages onward Gulmit will be disconnected from lower Hunza and will be in big problem for longer time. The government has no resources to remove the rabbles, how could it build such an expensive bridge??? However if the water is released Shishket will be the only village to be able to connected to lower Hunza.
People of Hunza have very rich experience of constructing water channels, cutting rocky mountains. We have many examples from Khizerabad to Chairperson & Shimshal using only its human resources. If the experience would have been applied the water would have been released so far. Still there is time to think on this option……………….But expectation from the dummy government and the Dam politics put the upper Hunza in danger.
From Pamir Times reports:
+Feb 6 – “the Shishkat–Gulmit Bridge will submerge in the artificial lake within two weeks according to reliable sources.”
+Jan 31 – “the spillway point is about 82 meter high from the present level of water in the lake.”
+Jan 31 – “the FOCUS expert informed this scribe that the water rising level in the lake in Ayeenabad on Sunday remained 2.3 feet.”
If the water level is indeed rising at 2.3 feet per day, and the Shishkat-Gulmit bridge will be submerged in 14 days, then the water is only 32 feet below the bridge.
If the planned spillway is 82 meters below the lake level of Jan 31, it is more than that 250 feet ABOVE the level of the Shishkat bridge.
These calculations are based on information in Pamir Times. If they are NOT correct, then correction would kindly be appreciated. IF, however, they ARE correct, then clearly Gojal is facing a disaster and immediate action is absolutely essential to save people’s lives.
From what I have been able to gather from some FOCUS geologist ,in last 24 hours the water rise in lake was recorded at 2.3 feet. Length of the lake has increased to over 11 kilometers. Depth of the lake at blockade was about 160 feet.
Gulmit – Shishkat bridge height of 33 feet from the river bed and it is expectedly going to be submerged by 15th-18th February .
Yes, there is significant danger to villages down stream in case of dam burst ( we pray this does not happen) and upstream due to food shortage.
What is needed i smore machines and more technical evaluation and dam modelling.
As per the comments of John Mock i really inspired about the real calculation regarding the submerging of shishket bridge. It is alarming to the Govt of Gilgit Baltistan to take quick initiative to release the water as soon as possible. As per my opinion I really appreciate that if this contract had given to Govt of china as compare to FWO. No doubt FWO is big organization where for taking prompt initiative I would rather prefer to give this contract to the Govt of China because they have sufficient resources i.e machineries, engineers etc. Chinies govt has already proved their pace of work of repairing the KKH.
A comment clerifies it as above that if this specifed job was given to CRBC(china road and bridge corporation)it was much beterer as parralel to pakistanis.Chinese have ability to eliminate such hapenings in a much shorter time. A step must be taken regard to this as the KKH is a part of thier contract.
i am very said about this.
dear all peoples of gojal hunza
it is very dangrous situation for us.that way we have to strugle for alternate facalaty of taransportatin .
itz unbelieveable thing that our gr8 shishkat iz sinking.+
Looks like it is really going to be a difficult task to create an alternate way to remove water and clear the blockage. Only three machines are involved in trying to remove the blockage where 100’s of them are required. How lightly our government is taking all this and they can’t even put more resources into it.
Have a look at the current videos loaded into place which should open the eyes of a common person regarding the nature of disaster.
http://www.7thbillion.com/hangspot.do?hid=VvMzaVQmX27QKPOnWfblsg==
This river has already submerged into water