Flood in Reshun Valley

Glacier lake outburst floods in the year 2013 cause an enormous loss of property and the historical village in Chitral.

Despite seeing the deaths of two other villages by the same flood people seemed to be like the flood was something unexpected and was a matter of surprise for them.

The income of average person went down, roads houses and schools in the territory were subjected to overflow. People remained opened to burden of devastation due to their mentally and structurally unpreparedness.

Awareness about disasters, building dams and reservoir to store the flood by giving examples from Bangladesh, and building and building embankments can reduce risks of flood.

Lack of awareness about glacier lack outburst flood ruined the historical place because people did not know how dangerous it could be. People were not mentally prepared for the flood it was to them a sudden and unexpected blow came from nowhere.

It was a sudden surprise for the people of Reshun, this caused them huge burden of devastation and caused much havoc and fear among the people of the place. More the 20 houses were completely wiped off, a mosque and important bridge connecting Reshun with few main places like Mastuj, Shandoor and Gilgit also flew with the speed of flood. Along with these forests, shops, electric poles, livelihood, infrastructure and communication system across Pakistan are reported to be badly affected by deputy commisioner Shoaib Jadoon Chitral.

He further added 78 water supply schemes, 64 protection walls and four schools were also damaged by constant flowing of flood through them. According to the express news report Standing crops, expensive logs of wood, and the irrigation channel were wiped off.

Chitral has a very long history of glacial lake outburst floods originating from high mountains . Glaciers had devastating impact on downstream communities from the very beginning like from some 350 years back and most of the people do not know facts about glaciers and their impact can be dangerous too leading to washing away lives of people too.

Chitral is home to about 524 glaciers. The largest and the first glacier lake outburst flood came back to 350 years in Borogil valley Chitral originated from Chintar glacier in Borogil. To reduce the adverse effect of the flood local communities, religious leaders, civil society organizations, national governments, national or international risk reduction agencies and research and development organizations across the globe were found no where despite of the long history of glacial lake outburst flood and their massive destructions. Unpreparedness augments to more risks and destructions.

Building dams and reservoir near the place where flood turns out to come might help to store the water and prevent huge destruction. Mostly dams are built for single purpose but there are now a growing number of multipurpose dams. Dams and reservoir can be effectively used to regulate river levels and flooding downstream of the dam by temporarily storing the flood volume and releasing it later. The most effective method of flood control is accomplished by an integrated water management plan for regulating the storage and discharges of each of the main dams located in a river basin. Each dam is operated by a specific water control plan for routing floods through the basin without damage.

This means lowering of the reservoir level to create more storage before the rainy season. This strategy eliminates flooding. The number of dams and their water control management plans are established by comprehensive planning for economic development and with public involvement.

Flood control is a significant purpose for many of the existing dams and continues as a main purpose for some of the major dams of the world currently under construction.

Embankment can be helpful in risk reduction by redirecting or by preventing flood. Studies have shown that embankment is really helpful as precautionary measure during floods. “Flood control embankments contribute to the improvement of the health status of children in rural Bangladesh”.

Bangladesh experiences major floods that inundate about one third of the country; therefore flood control project came up with embankment in flood vulnerable areas. Following the construction of the embankment, death rates outside were up to 29% higher in 1-4-year-old children and 9% higher for 0-4-year age group compared to the flood-protected area. Constructing embankments in the flood vulnerable place is always a smarter idea to avoid human and material loss in case of flood.

Conclusion: People were unaware of this disastrous flood mentally and structurally. This unpreparedness made the people of village suffer a lot. People had to go through number of sufferings from losing their houses to high economic sufferings. The average person income went down that led the price of things to touched the sky.

Lack outburst flood can be controlled in two ways by building dams and reservoir and also by constructing embankment can lessen down the risks caused by flood. We might not be able to stop the flood forever but we always can be prepared for it mentally and structurally.