Mansehra artificial lake threatens settlements and hotels

MANSEHRA: The artificial lake which was created in the Mahandri area after the flash floods that wreaked havoc in Kaghan and Manor valleys last week is posing a serious threat to settlements and business centres downstream at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road.

The water level in the artificially formed lake of Kunhar River is fast increasing to a dangerous level, and it might burst at any time, since a stretch of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road, hotels, and stores have already been swamped beneath it,” said Shakeel Jani, a local.

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He stated the National Highway Authority (NHA) was still undecided on how to drain the water that had gathered in the lake over kilometers.The National Highway Authority (NHA) has begun constructing the foundation for a permanent steel bridge on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad route.

The makeshift pavement, built at the place where the central bridge was carried away over Manor creek on MNJ Road, may bring some respite to trapped visitors and locals as they leave both valleys for their respective destinations.

“We have brought in heavy machinery to breach the lake (dam) that has formed on the MNJ route into Mahandri, and we have prohibited people and the business community from visiting their businesses and hotels.

“We hope to break this lake soon without causing any human or financial losses,” Adnan Khan Battani, the deputy commissioner, told reporters.He claimed that around 10,000 visitors who had been stuck in the Kaghan valley after flash floods ravaged the Manor region on July 30 have gone for other sites throughout the country.

According to the official, no visitors were present in Naran, the Kaghan valley’s business core, with the exception of skeletal hotel personnel.”Around 100 vehicles are still laying abandoned in parts of both Kaghan and Manor valleys as over 150 people were provided safer passage to move out via temporary pavement built at the Manor stream in Mahandri,” according to him.

“We have also started the erection of a permanent steel bridge which would take 10 to 12 days to complete,” Battani said reporters.He stated that visitors would not be permitted to enter the Kaghan and Manor valleys until a permanent bridge was built.