By Staff Reporter
DIAMER DISTRICT: Flash floods tore through six locations in a rugged district of northern Pakistan early on Monday, destroying homes, wiping out roads, and burying part of the Karakoram Highway under landslide debris, the latest in a string of climate-linked disasters to strike the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The floods, triggered by heavy rainfall, struck the Khanbari, Niyat, Thore, Gaspayan, Gasbala, and Bunar areas of Diamer district, according to a statement from the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority. They damaged houses, agricultural land, and both the Karakoram Highway and the smaller link roads that connect isolated mountain communities to the outside world.
In Khanbari, a flash flood swept away two houses along with their contents. Several livestock were also lost. In the Thunraka area of Thore Valley, flood debris poured into homes and destroyed standing crops and fruit trees, while the valley’s main road was washed out in multiple places, cutting off traffic entirely, disaster management officials said.
The flooding also knocked out power transmission lines serving Thore Valley and the surrounding area, leaving thousands of residents without electricity. In Niyat, in the Chilas area, floodwaters destroyed link roads at several points, severing transportation links for local communities.
The Diamer-Bhasha Dam project, a major hydropower development on the Indus River, was not spared. A private contractor working on the dam lost 13 dumper trucks, an excavator, a crushing plant, and two water tankers to the floodwaters, bringing construction activity there to a halt.
Landslides and debris blocked the Karakoram Highway at Bonar Das, stranding vehicles in long queues on both sides of the roadway for hours. Domestic and foreign tourists were among those stuck waiting. Crews later reopened the highway, but link roads to outlying villages remained impassable, and power had not been restored in many of the hardest-hit areas.
Residents have appealed to the Gilgit-Baltistan government, the district administration, and disaster response agencies — including the National Disaster Management Authority and the provincial disaster authority — to launch relief operations, restore the highway and secondary roads, reconnect power, and provide financial assistance to affected families.
The disaster is the latest sign of what scientists describe as an accelerating climate crisis in Gilgit-Baltistan, a Himalayan region wedged between some of the world’s highest peaks. Cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides, and glacial lake outburst floods — sudden, often catastrophic releases of water from lakes formed by melting glaciers — have grown more frequent in recent years, threatening downstream communities as river and stream levels rise. Mudflows have damaged roads, bridges, irrigation channels, water systems, and farmland across the region, while river erosion has destroyed homes and displaced families in the districts of Ghizer, Nagar, Shigar, and Ghanche.
The National Disaster Management Authority’s emergency operations center has issued alerts warning of further landslides and possible glacial lake outburst floods. Communities across Gilgit-Baltistan are also contending with heat waves and faster glacier melt this summer, on top of the recurring landslides, disruptions that are taking a toll on livelihoods throughout the region.
“Rising temperatures in recent years have accelerated glacier melting, leading to more frequent cloudbursts and glacial lake outburst flood events,” Safdar Hussain, an environmental expert, told local media.
Gilgit-Baltistan is home to an estimated 8,400 glaciers and more than 4,000 glacial lakes. Its ice cover has been shrinking rapidly, experts say, heightening the danger of glacial lake outburst floods and raising long-term concerns about the region’s water security.
Officials said they had put emergency plans in place to respond to any glacial lake outburst flood.
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