22 June 2010

Blasting of boulders has begun at Attabad

Posted by Dave Petley

Yesterday NDMA started the process of blasting the boulders in the channel at Attabad.  This image, from Focus, shows the state of the channel and the reconstructed access track:

One of the blasts yesterday was on the boulder at the entrance to the channel, visible on the left of the image above.  This image shows the crews drilling the blast holes:

Clearly this boulder is not the main issue in terms of the flow, but it may be that they are using this one, which is accessible, as a test.  Access to the other side of the channel is difficult, so the suggestion is that water cannon will be used to erode the softer material.  It will be interesting to see what they do today in terms of blasts.

Meanwhile the lake level rose by between 8 and 10 inches (20-25 cm) yesterday, suggesting that inflow has increased again.