Monsoon a new threat to quake survivors
The approaching monsoon season poses new dangers of flooding for Hattian Bala village, officials said on Thursday.
The huge pile of earth and boul ders has blocked two streams, forming dams that could collapse in a rainy season. The government has determined that the dam collapse would inundate Hattian Bala and destroy a nearby bridge, Lt Col Zulfiqar Ali Janjua, an army engineer, said.
The government has set a June 25 deadline for excavating two spillways that will reduce the dams’ capacities. Work began last month and the smaller spillway has been completed. Hattian Bala is regarded to be in extreme danger and the government has allotted $1 million to correct the water flow. But other communities threatened by similar newly formed dams will have to move. “All along the fault line, there are numerous lakes (created by landslides), but they are marginally stable because they’re not yet full,” Janjua said. Teams of government surveyors and geologists are studying the lakes and will report next month on the villages that will be at risk during the monsoon season.
Thousands of people will have to shift homes because of the threat of flooding, he said. “Wherever locations are identified as potential hazards, they will be forced to move,” Janjua said. Upstream from Hattian Bala, the spillway on the smaller dam, Tang Nullah, was completed with the excavation of 45,000 cubic metres of rubble.
Karli Nullah will require blasting and digging by heavy earth moving equipment of 825,000 cubic metres of rubble to bring the wall down by 30 metres, Janjua said.
Source: Daily Times
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