Climate Crisis Unfolds in Gilgit-Baltistan: Flash Floods and Unprecedented Heat Threaten Lives and Livelihoods
By Syed Shams Uddin A deeply alarming video that surfaced on Facebook on July 22 has once again drawn public attention to the growing environmental vulnerability of Gilgit-Baltistan. The footage shows a colossal wave of floodwater—described by eyewitnesses as the largest ever—rushing through Danyore's Manogah stream and tearing past Sultanabad with ferocious intensity. Laden with mud, stones, uprooted vegetation, and other debris, the massive flood resembling a rampaging storm, struck the Hunza River at Sarwar's Khari innundating this tiny habitat by momentarily blocking the Hunza River. The waterscape of Danyore has been completely obliterated at places, as the flood first swept away the fragile piped water supply running through the nullah—on which the entire area, including Sultanabad, Muhammadabad, and central Danyore, depends. The irrigation system too has also been damaged, while other related losses are yet to be fully assessed.It is said that there has been flooding too...