BBCKomal’s night watch was of rough, forbidding hills, the hurry of the creek dozens of metres below the family house on the mountain. The water then poured down beneath their feet, causing the earth to sag.
” It was a beautiful day”, says Komal, 18.
For decades, her relatives had lived among the vineyards and green estates in the center of the Hunza river in the Karakorum hills of Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan location.
” In the morning everyone was ordinary, I went to school”, Komal says,” but then my teacher told me that Hassanabad gate had collapsed”.
Upstream, a glacier river had formed, therefore immediately burst- sending water, boulders and debris trickling down the valley and gathering speed. Some people assumed there was an disaster because the earth trembled so violently.
The concrete bridge that connected the two villages was destroyed when the stream struck it.
” By the time I came home, people were taking what they could outside of their home”, Komal says. She retrieved books, cleaning, and anything else she may bring, but she now recalls thinking there was no way their home may be affected because it was so high above the water.
Their neighbors could see that the water was removing the mountain that their house was situated on when they received a visit from the other side of the valley.
Then the houses began to collapse.
When the disaster struck, my aunt and uncle were still inside the family home, she says. Although the home managed to survive, their properties vanished over the edge.
Now, walking through the dark dust and sand, there are still layer hooks on the roof, a few tiles in the bath, a windows with the glass long gone. It’s been two times, but nothing has grown on the crumbling rock that used to be Komal’s yard in Hassanabad.
” This used to be all a natural spot”, she says. When I travel to this location, I recall my day spent there and my childhood memories. But the desolate sites, they hurt me, they make me feel unhappy”.
According to experts, Gilgit-Baltistan and the nearby Chitral are experiencing environment change as a result of climate change. Some refer to this region as the Third Pole, which is a place where there is more glaciers than anywhere else in the world besides the arctic parts.
If current emissions continue, Himalayan glaciers could lose up to two-thirds of their volume by the end of this century, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.
More than 48, 000 people in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral are deemed to be in high risk of a disaster or explosion, according to the Aga Khan Development Network ( AKDN). Some communities, like the town of Badswat in the nearby city of Ghizer, are in such danger that they are being completely evacuated, their houses being made unlivable.
According to Deedar Karim, program coordinator for the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat,” Climate shift has increased the intensity and frequency of catastrophe across the place.”
” These places are very exposed. With the increase in temperature, there are more discharges ( of water ) and then more flooding. It’s causing harm to system, houses, agricultural land, every equipment has been damaged by these increasing storms.
” The snowfall style is changing. The rain style and glacier melting are both changing. So it’s changing the interactions of risks.”
Moving groups is challenging because some people have lived there for centuries and are unwilling to leave it, as well as finding a safe, reliable water supply.
” We have quite restricted land and limited resources. According to Zubair Ahmed, assistant director of the Hunza and Nagar district’s Disaster Management Authority,” we do n’t have common lands to shift people to.”
” I may say that after five or 10 years, it will be very hard for us to even thrive. Perhaps people will realize this after a few years or decades, but it will be too soon. Therefore, even though we are still later, I believe this is the right time to consider it.
Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, although it is only responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
” We don’t stop these occasions, because this is a worldwide matter,” Mr Ahmed says”. All we can accomplish is avert such situations and train our citizens accordingly.
In the town of Passu, simply over an hour’s travel from Hassanabad, they are holding an evacuation drilling, preparing for possible loss. The majority of people are aware that if a road or bridge is blocked, damaged, or swept away in an emergency, it might take days for outdoor assistance to occur.
They regularly practice evacuating the town, using wheelchairs to transport the injured to the hospital, and using high mountain save techniques like first aid and river crossing.
Ijaz has spent the past 20 times volunteering, and he has heard a lot of tales of walking in the hills for rescuers. However, he is concerned about both the risk of harm and the region’s worse-than-expected conditions.
” The weather now, we just ca n’t say what will happen, “he says”. Even five years ago, the weather did n’t change as much. After 30 minutes, we are unable to declare what it will be.
He knows also, that there’s only so much his crew of volunteers is complete.
” Unfortunately, if the flood comes and it’s a heavy flood we ca n’t do anything, “he says”. The region has completely dried up. We may help people live and get out of the flood-stricken locations if it’s small.
Another prevention measures are in place in the area, including marble and cable barriers designed to prevent flooding, systems that track glacier melt, rainfall, and water levels, and speakers that have been installed in villages to alert the population if danger appears to be imminent. However, many employees around claim to require more tools.
” We have installed early warning systems in some hills,” says Mr Ahmed”. The Pakistan Meteorological Department compiled a list of about 100 rivers from which we were able to identify these. But because of limited tools, we are just able to intervene in 16.”
He claims that more discussion is being afoot.
Sultan Ali, who is now in his 70s, resides a dozen houses away from Komal.
His grandchildren bring us a dish of peaches they’ve picked from their garden while we talk sitting on a standard charpoy sleep.
He claims he has nowhere to go despite the fact that he is aware that his house could go into the river if another flood occurs.
” As I approach the end of my life, I feel vulnerable, “he tells me”. The babies are really worried, they ask where did we live?
” We have no alternatives. There is nothing we can do in the event of a disaster, but it will destroy anything. I ca n’t blame anyone, it’s just our fate”.
In the tone of the garden, his children play tag. The conditions, the frost, the atmosphere is changing around them. When they get older, how will this land search?
Komal is also unsure of what lies ahead.
” I do n’t think we will stay here forever”, she says. ” The problem is clear now. However, we must decide whether we need to travel elsewhere. Simply this”.
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