[Opinion] Rebuilding Gojal Valley
Pamiri
Around 90 households of Ayeenabad and Shishkat have been displaced from their houses by the monstrous lake formed after the earth flow event that took place at Attabad, Hunza, on January 4, 2010. In Ayeenabad and Shishkat thousands of Kanals of land, including orchards, crop fields and thousands of trees have been destroyed during the past five months and the destruction is likely to continue long after the lake has been drained.
The organic collapse of means of livelihood is now underway at the Tehsil headquarter, Gulmit, and is bound to directly affect around 30 households, while indirectly posing daunting challenges for rest of the people.
While human settlements in other parts of Gojal may not be directly caused to submerge in the lake water, the indirect effects of infrastructure collapse and resultant isolation is also enormous.
Recovery of the economy and rehabilitation of the people would not be a simple task. An integrated, multi-input area development, approach needs to be adopted for bringing back life to normal in Gojal valley.
The government will have to take the lead, ideally. Provision of financial resources and overall development structure is the primary responsibility of the federal government and the government of Gilgit – Baltistan. National and International NGOs, community based organizations, which are very strong in Gojal valley, and other governments of the world can also be involved in the process of reconstruction and recovery.
In the mean time the hundreds of Gojalis who are working in NGOs around the world need to think for a while and start returning to their homeland, at least for a short time, to offer services for their motherland.
Inshah Allah normal life will resume in the beautiful valley.
i am free for almost two weeks from 24th and i am thinking to go for volunteer work in the disaster area??
is volunteers needed or not there? plz let me know
I beleive AKRSP can make a difference in the lives of Gojal-Hunza through their specialist expertise, as we do,t need to keep any kind of good hope rom this current disasterious Govt. particularly the profiles like CM Mehdi, PM Gilani and above all bloody zardari.
I think until we donot own our area and realize our longterm problems with a visionery solution for the future leadership, educational issues, economic and development upliftment on warfooting basis it sems quiet difficult to overcome this disaterious situation for many many years. On this stage we are scattered and divided on political parties background and it is our extreme unfortunate that still we are defending parties instead of safeguard our homeland, our existance, our values, our culture and our nation. The shamful comments of our elected representatives through which how they justify the inordinate delay to tackle this situation is a lesson to the nation for our future decissions. We must remember that those culprites must and must be brought into justice who are directly and indirectly responsible to this distruction.
Human kind have suffered uncountable disastrous situations of unimaginable volume. Yes, he has always responded to the situation and has converted risks to opportunities.
The will to re-build is natural in that respect. But one needs to calculate the volume of the work to be done, the time frame, the hard and soft sources and the capacity available of the civil society and the state organs. The nascent govt of GB and the govt in the rule in Islamabad must provide due economical compensations to the effectees, as per the law and as past governance practices in other parts of the country. The compensation issue must not be the headache of a serving general visiting the area for other purposes.
To re-build Gojal, the largest tehsil, in area, of Hunza-Nagar district is in dire need of an air field . Pasu airport, neglected and unfunctional for many decades, must now be made functional for emergency and future tourist purpose uses. As a functional KKH has become a dream for years to come. This air port can provide an air link to Kashgher of Sinkiang-China and other CA countries in the region. Such other possibilities in other districts of Gilgit-Bultistan Regions along with the airport at Chilas, Diamar district.