Gojal: Govt chopper fails to fly on the second day also, spillway to be opened today
Our Correspondents
Aliabad/Gulmit/Gilgit: A chopper deployed in Hunza valley to airlift stranded commuters failed to operate on the second day also. Irritated by the constant failures, tens of the stranded people from Gojal who were stuck in Aliabad for almost 9 days crossed the frozen lake in protest on their feet, putting their lives at great risk.
Later, a chopper provided by the AKDN transported around 150 people from Gojal between Karimabad and Gulmit. Prefernece was given to the elderly, patients and students.
A number of boats that tried to go on a literal “ice-breaking” mission got stuck in middle of the lake and had to be rescued by volunteers and scouts from Gojal.
It is pertinent to note that the dammed river has frozen and boats are not operating. There are also reports that the local volunteers and scouts are trying to break the frozen lake’s surface to make way for the boats.
Meanwhile, the district government has announced in the regional media that the temporarily blocked spillway of the dammed Hunza River will be opened tomorrow. The FWO temporarily blocks the spillway to be able to conduct excavation work.
People in the downstream areas have been warned by the adminsitration to stay away from the river banks as the flow of water will suddenly increase to around 25,000 Cusecs, as reported in the regional government operated radio.
It is anticipated that due to impact of the announced blast and due to sudden outflow of the water, the frozen surface of the dammed river will break and resultantly boats might be able to operate in the lake afterwards. This will bring an end to the misery of the people of Gojal who, otherwise, had to wait in Aliabad in anguish and despair for days.
thanks pamir times for updates
Sheer incompetence of the diesel mafia, as is a popular perception!
The Attaabad lake and how it is being handled by the authorities that be, is the worst case of inaction, ill-planning and risk anticipation, with no examples from anywhere in the world, i think.
We hear from day one, that FWO denied the contract to be given to Chinese company, then we heard FWO will open the lake in 45 days, After that we were told FWO was cutting and cutting, digging and digging. Last we heard they were cementing the barrier, and making concrete walls, then they blast it again, and again. Now, they could not anticipate the cold wave, and accumulated the water by erecting barriers, and again we hear they are blasting to open it, so that the ice-surface is broken down!!
It seems, the NHA who gave the contract to them, has no control over the contractee?
Is there anybody who could ask the contractor what they are up to?
we can only pray and hope for the good. in this situation where more than thirty thousands are without a single doctor in this extreme weather and there is no any other way to go out. and from the same area each year govt is earning thousands of dollar. what sort of policy is this and what sort of behaviour with the local people. Govt must do some urgent at this stage but…………….
we can only hope from this deadly and poor policies
What every FWO exercise, PPP will have to pay the cost of public worry in the shape of complete wipe out from Gojal, I am sure and confirm that PPP will not be able to win from the whole hunza region, I remember when the incompetent minister of Kashmir and affairs, now federal minister for information insulted our elders and and challenged PT reporter that FWO may takes 45 to 170 days to re-open spillway, we remember all the news clips and media strips from January 2010 to date, lets wait for the election
Dear Gojalians.
The contract of the spillway is not in the hands of NHA it is directly run by Planning Commission of Pakistan and monitored by a committee at Prime Minister Secretariate Islamabad. NHA is a stake holder like NDMA, WAPDA, Army Core, FWO etc. In 2011 the main block at spillway was checked by a huge X-ray machine and it was confirmed that due to heavy rocks the block willt burstout suddenly and still there is no reason to stop work at the water discharge in summer. The main reason is now to retain the silt for the next three to four years on the pressure of WAPDA to prolong the life of dames in Punjab. Due to the silience of our people the govt is working on his preplanned project. FWO will not open the dam as Planning Commission has given it a target of 30Mtr digging upto June 2014. In the next three years the silt will cover the area upto Ayeenabad area and automatically the water level will be decreased. From the day one we were begging to the people to raise voice but our own political reps relied on the fake presentatios of FWO. We must ask Wazir Beg and Mutabiaty Shah that what happened to the special team of GBLA me,mbers formed on the request of Gojal Early Recovery Committee in 2011 under Chairmanship of Speaker GBLA, which was suppose to check the working of FWO on monthly basis and will visit the area and why this committe not worked. If our own representatives are not sincere to our homeland then how we expect that a person sitting in a air conditioned room in Islamabad will work for us.Our reps used our councils even Tariqa board and misinfored them,hiding the real situation and thus our people particulaly the voice of youth throughout Hunza were oppressed and resultantly the situation is becomming worse. Our people were divided and a group of trade mafia backed by relegious and political figures got chance to damage Hunza at every level to get maximum benifits out of this disaster. Protesting in Nagar to stop blasting the spillway, attacking on Gojal, killing our innocent brothers, launching FIR against our youth and grabbing more and more land in soust town are the series of the steps to eleminate Hunza, poliotically, financially and socially. It is still time for our people to think about our future otherwise a worst time is waiting ahead.
@Khudadad. Dear Mr. Khudadad, you, Rehan Shah, Ali Qurban, Jahanageer etc are the one who have divided us. You people made a new group for your own projection. We were also with you at that time. But we realized what your true purpose was. Your purpose was to politicize each and every event for your own nefarious designs. You people were the one who asked people from Nagar, Jutal, Nomal etc to protest against government when the people of Gojal rejected you. Due to this the attention from the lake was diverted into the downstream people and they shifted them to other locations and portponed the blasting. You live in USA now but you have no idea what is going on here and what we are going through. You have plenty of time to sit and just comment on social media. The only thing you do is criticize others while not suggesting any constructive solution. We are also against the bad policies of the PPP but at the same time we also appreciate the good works. You have divided us into different groups till now. Please dont do this.
@Shah Zaman. Dear you seem to live in a fictional world. Agreed that the PPP will be wiped out of Gojal. But does that make any difference. When we will not stand beside our leaders they will not be able to deliver to us. We have been divided into groups. Some of us have still got the mindset of the 1960s. They still have an enslaved mind, a mind enslaved by the Mirs or Rajas. They still want to be loyal to them.
I ask my friend Ali Khan ???that when u people were organized and on one agenda so we divided you. The serious emerging issues are still on grounds for which we were crying from day one. If you have a personal problem with someone please dont bring it here.I believe that we live at any part of the world we must work to our people and because we are aware about all the mishaps therefore it is pertinent to inform people.As per rejection of people to our struggle is concern, the people are facing it everyday and why people protested last day and crosed the frozen lake in protest in a most humilated situation. The hovac at the initial stage were spread by national media not us.
Dear Ali Khan bhai, I don’t live in a fictional world, I am much more update and believes on reality, both parties have damaged us seriously (PPP and the PML) also agree with you on the mind set trends of Mirs and Rajas, no doubt about it at all
Therefore we need to let space for the third emerging force, it could be APML, MQM, Awami Tehreek or any Independent Candidate belongs to middle class, highly professional and falls under the threshold limits of Article 62 and 63 of the constitution.