18 December 2010
The cost of reconstruction after the Attabad landslide
Posted by Dave Petley
Whilst it has dropped from the news during the winter period, the Attabad landslide crisis in Pakistan rumbles on, with dire consequences for the population on the north side of the barrier. In the next few days the high passes into China will close again, rendering the population of Gojal isolated once again. The Pamir Times featured an article a few days ago highlighting how tough conditions are once again:
“The sharp drop in temperature has further increased difficulties of the people in Gojal Valley. A woman belonging to the remote Raminji Village of Gojal Valley delivered a child inside a van en-route to Aliabad, Hunza, while waiting for the boats to operate at Hussaini. She had been referred to the Aliabad Hospital due to gynaecological complications. Around two hundred people are stranded on both ends of the lake that had formed due to a mega landslide incident earlier this year. Hundreds of patients are forced to travel to other parts of the region due to lack of health facilities in Gojal Valley…A local lady doctor, Khadija Ali, who had volunteered to work in the difficult situation, was forced to leave her position due to uncertainty regarding her future caused by bureaucratic red-tapism and lack of political will … Adil Khan, a manager of the Mountain Area Support Organization (MASO), feared that with further drop in temperature the sufferings will increase immensely. “Yesterday a boat was stuck in middle of the lake because the water had frozen”, he said. “The people broke the sheaths of ice and made way for the boat but today the lake has frozen again”, he further said”
Meanwhile, today the Pamir Times featured an article on an agreement between the Chinese and Pakistani Governments regarding the reconstruction of the Karakoram Highway. This suggests that the reconstruction effort is likely to take six years at a cost of US$275 million, and involve lowering the lake level by 30 metres (this has been imminent for months now), constructing six large bridges, constructing 70 small bridges, and presumably building a substantial stretch of new road. The difficultes faced are shown in the picture below, taken from the dam in February, which shows the terrain through which the new road will need to be constructed:
The road will need to along the rock wall on the right side of the lake in this view. The hazards of such a project are nicely illustrated by a news report from India (Caution the link has pop-ups!) today, about a landslide that has affected the Tehri hydroelectric project in northern India. Note the last sentence of the quote:
“Power supply to Delhi and some northern states may suffer because a landslide on Friday has halted operations at the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC). The flow of over 800 cusecs from the Bhagirathi, a tributary of the Ganga, into four turbines has been stopped, THDC sources said. Debris from the landslip has blocked a diversion tunnel forcing a stop to generation from the 1,000MW hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand….According to THDC officials, with the suspension of water supply, the entire process of power generation has virtually stopped resulting in losses to the tune of Rs 10 core per day. The landslide struck the under-construction 400-MW Koteshwar Hydro Project, a part of the second phase of the THDC’s mega 2400MW project, spread over 22 km covering Tehri and Koteshwar. The tunnel, situated close to the Koteshwar plant, suffered extensive damage, sources said. The landslide was apparently triggered by construction of a link road.”
I am not sure as to the detail of this incident – does anyone have any more information?
Meanwhile, can I also recommend a great retrospective on the summer monsoon floods in Pakistan on Susan Kieffer’s wonderful Geology in Motion blog.
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
feet or meter?
The Pamir Times article (2010-12-19) is titled
“Dammed Hunza River to be lowered by 30 ft”
and one of the last sentences about possible reactions of affected people is “…others are likely to criticize the government for failing to get the promised 30 meter (almost 100 ft) height reduction.”
But I’ve also already read about a reduction of 30 meter. Maybe it is a typing error of the Pamir Times reporter and a following misinterpretation in the last cited sentence? Otherwise their ‘expected 15 km resufacing’ seems impossible for me…
30 ft is a mistake based on a mistake in the source for the Pamir Times article (http://ftpapp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125075&Itemid=1). From the same source there is a second report naming the correct 30 m and even more details than the first one:
http://ftpapp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125117&Itemid=193
The Koteshwar HE project http://wikimapia.org/#lat=30.261143&lon=78.4937525&z=16&l=0&m=b is about 13 km south, and downstream, of the main Tehri dam and seems to have been singularly ‘accident’ prone. The cofferdam was damaged by flood water on successive years, 2008, 2009, 2010 http://www.dailypioneer.com/265132/Cofferdam-suffers-damage-for-3rd-time.html. This year the damage, in September which also flooded the powerhouse, was apparently caused by excess water being released from the Tehri dam http://videosfromindia.smashits.com/view/15321/water-from-tehri-inundates-koteshwar-dam&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr
Another slide caused by blasting at an Indian hydroelectric project:
“Tunnel mouth covered by debris: Our Correspondent, Rangpo, January 16: Use of explosives rained down big boulders from the hill side during the construction of a tunnel at Rorathang for a mega power project yesterday. The boulders completely blocked the mouth of the tunnel.
However, no labourers were inside the tunnel preventing a tragedy.
The debris is still blocking the entry to the tunnel and construction works have halted.”
[Sikkim Express, Gangtok, 17 January 2011, p.6]
The same photograph as used in the report above at: http://indrakilsikkim.blogspot.com/2011/01/neglency-may-caused-big-accident-be.html
The hydroelectric project mentioned is probably the 51MW Bhasmey Hydroelectric Power Project over the Rangpo River in East Sikkim http://www.gatiinfra.com/Bhasmey.htm . It is located between 27°11’12.00″N 88°33’16.00″E http://wikimapia.org/#lat=27.1867003&lon=88.5544395&z=15&l=0&m=b and 27°11’45.00″N 88°36’45.00″E http://wikimapia.org/#lat=27.1944684&lon=88.6126113&z=16&l=0&m=b, see http://www.sikenvis.nic.in/docs/EIA%20EMP/EIA%20GIL/SALIENT%20FEATURES,%20Bhasmey%20H.E.P..pdf. The tunnel that was blocked was possibly the headrace tunnel.
Another example in India of rockfalls causing damage and injury at an Indian hydroelectric project. This time at the Teesta Stage V HEP in Sikkim. See: DC directs work to be stopped at Stage VI dam-site after rock fall injures labourers, Sikkim NOW!, Gangtok, 11 August 2011, http://sikkimnow.blogspot.com/2011/08/dc-directs-work-to-be-stopped-at-stage.html . The article is slightly misleading as the rockfalls appear to have taken place around the Power House at 27°15’4.47″N 88°27’33.39″E rather than the actual dam which I think is at 27°23’17.24″N 88°30’13.82″E. A plan of the scheme can be found at http://www.nhpcindia.com/Projects/english/Scripts/Prj_LayoutPlan.aspx?Vid=17