Despite spending millions on early warning systems, is the government losing the trust of residents in vulnerable areas?
Skardu, Pakistan – When Wasiyat Khan was woken up by a loud explosion in the middle of the night, he thought “the mountains had burst” and a landslide was on its way.
Accompanied by his family, Wasiyat, a shepherd from Roshan valley of Ghizer, in northern Pakistan’s mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region, had taken his livestock to elevated land for grazing on a sojourn during the warmer months.
Soon enough, as the family sought immediate safety, he realised the explosion was the sound of a glacier bursting. As their temporary accommodation was being swept away by the floodwaters, Wasiyat thought of the villages which lay in the water’s path.
At more than 3,000 metres in the darkness of the night, outside help was impossible to get. He immediately jumped across boulders and reached a designated spot where he could get mobile phone signals and alerted the villagers, who numbered about 300.
“Within 30 minutes, we got a call back saying the villagers had evacuated safely and no lives were lost,” Wasiyat told local m
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