News
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Attaabad victims await rehabilitation, assistance
By Shoaib Sultan Khan
Having spent 12 years in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral while implementing the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), I have developed empathy with the people of the area. My heart went out to the people of Attaabad, when I read on the Internet about the catastrophe that had struck them. On returning to Pakistan, I was yearning to commiserate with the people of Attaabad. I soon found out that the landslide and flooding had not only affected Attaabad, but also Sarrat, Ayeenabad-Shishkat, Gulmit, Lower Ghulkin, Hussaini and even Passu, encompassing 381 houses, including 147 of Attaabad and Sarrat. In fact, all the 19 deaths reported occurred in Attaabad Payeen.
Around 1,000 households, 10,000 individuals are affected. Indirectly, the submerging of KKH has broken the link between Upper and Central Hunza. Trade with China has halted, affecting employment of 6,000 individuals. Seven schools, 130 hotels, shops and businesses and three community centers are all inundated. Potato crop worth millions of rupees is submerged in water, while there are no buyers for the crop left due to lack of means of transportation. The fruit and forest trees planted and nurtured over decades have also been lost. The area’s economy has been shattered. In fact, the impact has been felt even down stream.
In such a scenario, I was expecting the AKF helicopters to be helping the victims of the landslide, but was shocked to see no sign of them when I made a request to take me on their next sortie to the area. Fortunately, I reached Gilgit through a PIA flight.
From Gilgit to Hunza, which used to take not more than one and a half hour through the KKH, it took me four hours. There were small country boats taking around one and a half hour from the landslide to Gulmit. In between was the lake with a depth of 136 feet at Gulmit to 376 feet at Sarrat. The AKRSP RPM Muzaffaruddin and Dr Shahida Jaffrey, who had joined me at Hunza, considered different options for travelling.
Fortunately, Col Niaz of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) took pity on us and, at Muzaffar’s request, gave us a both-ways lift in the NDMA helicopter. On each round, it can take only a few people and the victims are crying for AKF assistance. At an Altit school, to which Dr Shahida had made substantial donations, the victims of Attaabad-Sarrat, living under canvas pitched on the playground, met us. I could not control my emotions and burst into tears. I was reminded of 1983 when I first went to Attaabad and Sarrat. The AKRSP had helped the Attaabad Village Organisation (VO) to build a link-road to KKH. The road was so steep that I got down from the jeep and walked up to Attaabad, finding the most enchanting village nestling, like an eagle’s nest, on the top. At Sarrat, down below, the Sarrat VO had been helped by the AKRSP to construct one of the first micro-hydel projects. The VO members showed it to me by starting it during the day.
Today, I found them along with women cooped up, feeling like prisoners. Their hearth and houses, their land with crops and orchards, their livestock, everything was gone. On top of that, to add insult to injury, a day earlier, authorities had told them after months, during which all kinds of promises were made, that each family would be given Rs 600,000, as this was much more than what was given as compensation to the 2005 earthquake victims or is given to families in Punjab and other parts of Pakistan. The people were stunned. How could they be compared to the victims, who at least did not lose their land and had some place to build their houses and to rebuild their lives by re-ploughing their lands?
The cost of one kanal of land in the area would be much more than the amount they are being given as compensation. The women were totally lost. For months they had been sitting idle and were yearning to get back to tending the crops and livestock. They were so frustrated and disheartened that they even threatened to refuse to accept the grant and to pitch themselves in tents opposite Attaabad-Sarrat and to suffer whatever God had destined for them. I could only promise to take their voices and concerns to the highest quarter I have access to. The only solace I could offer was the shelter boxes donated by the Rotary International at the request of Dr Rashid Bajwa, the National Rural Support Programme CEO. They had arranged shipment of 1,000 shelter boxes, $1,000 each, through their London branch.
The helicopter flew over Attaabad and Sarrat, which had disappeared, leaving traces of a massive landslide. Next to Sarrat, along the river, used to be Lord Kitchener’s wedding cake-type memorial, commemorating his visit to the Silk Route in 1903. There was no sign of it. The azure-blue lake stretching below us had devoured Ayeenabad with a few treetops visible, and inundated the entire Shishkat Payeen and some portion of Bala.
We landed at Gulmit School. I was heartened to see the KKH re-emerging from the lake beyond Shishkat Bridge, which was not visible – one of the longest bridges on the highway. Strangely enough, in 1974, when Tariq Siddiqi and I had come on a sojourn of the area, the first friendship bridge built on the KKH at Shishkat had also been devoured by an avalanche and we crossed the river on a temporary boat-bridge.
However, my joy was short-lived. The little car, which picked us up at the helipad, soon came to a stop at the Silk Route Hotel, where I had many a times stayed and have had lunches and teas. Water had swallowed the dining hall and beyond the hotel, the KKH had again disappeared, devouring hundreds of houses, hotels and shops, even the Gooz Women’s Organisation’s Orchard. My two friends, Mutabiat Shah and Qurban Jan, had also lost their houses. I could not believe my eyes. I had seen these areas transform from 1983. The people had worked so hard and achieved so much, yet all was lost in no time.
I was touched by the assembly of over 100 men and women representing Gulmit, Gojal and Chapurson LSOs. Ismaili Regional Council Secretary Tikka Khan had also accompanied us. The LSO representatives briefly recounted their achievements through the AKRSP and narrated the challenges facing them in the wake of the landslide.
On the return flight by helicopter from Gulmit, Hunza Nagar Deputy Commissioner Zafar Taj also joined us. I beseeched him to impress upon the authorities the special circumstances and not to compare the plight of these victims with those of the earthquake or down country. I was impressed by the NDMA’s operations, who have set up a helicopter operation base at the Aliabad School and four army captains were supervising the operations.
At Gilgit, I was told by AKRSP GM Izhar Hunzai that Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob had reassured him of mobilising additional funds, over the federal grant from local and donor resources. Nawaz Sharif had pledged Rs 100 million. The NDMA, I was told by the Hunza DC, has already appealed for international aid. I would request Tom Kessinger, the Geneva AKF GM, to mobilise donor support for the victims of the Attaabad lake. It is high time the Attaabad-Sarat victims were informed about what has been proposed to rehabilitate them.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk