Quake-hit areas face massive landslide threat

Posted by Kashif Aziz
June 27, 2006

The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the World Wide Fund (WWF) and CARE International are predicting a serious environmental hazard in the earth quake- affected areas and have issued an alert bulletin highlighting the threats for the up coming monsoon season.

Environmentalists are saying that the unstable earth, resulting from the earthquake, may cause massive landslides and loss of life and agricultural land in the event of heavy or extended rains. According to Dr David Petley of University of Durham it was probably the greatest landslide threat in the world.

Geo-technical scientists, working in the quake affected areas, have realised that the slope stability issues were much more serious than originally estimated. Monsoons rains , due in mid July, might result in soil with increased water content resulting in unstable slopes that could slide down. So far the catastrophe has been prevented by the absence of heavy rains since the earthquake.

The government authorities such as the Geological Survey of Pakistan are in the process of identifying landslide threats in the area. However, no comprehensive hazard mapping for the landslides and subsequent risk analysis has been conducted to cover the entire earth quake -affected area.

Experts have advised the local communities to stay away from the river beds due to of flash floods, to carefully observe large cracks on hill slopes and to keep local authorities informed of any changes. Moreover, immediate measures are required to divert the runoff water from the cracks.

Source: Daily Times

Aftermath

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