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12 Kaghan villages at landslide risk: UN

* Expert advises government to evacuate people immediately

MUZAFFARABAD: Parts of at least 12 villages in Pakistan’s quake zone could be wiped out by landslides and floods and must be evacuated, a top geologist and United Nations consultant advising the Pakistani government on landslides, warned on Tuesday.

“Parts of Chikarhas, Karrian and Jebal Danna have to be evacuated. Parts of mountains are slipping away and whole sides of mountains have come down,” said Professor Jean Schneider from the Centre of Natural Hazards and Risk Management in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Near Jared and Kawai in the Kaghan Valley a whole flank of a mountain must be evacuated as cracks are widening. “We have to observe how fast they are opening. If they accelerate, people have to be taken out immediately,” Schneider said.

As well as leaving mounds of ruins and debris after the October 8 earthquake, the land is also now riddled with deep, gaping cracks. Fault lines cutting through mountains have literally split them in half. With precipitation, caused by the onset of winter snow and rain, Schneider says the results could be catastrophic.

“The dam is now holding back the water of two valleys and the water table is rising. With snowmelt, spilling over will happen for certain and as soon as it spills over and erodes the dam, debris flow can rush down at high speed, at approximately 50 to 100 km an hour,” Schneider warned. “Everything will be destroyed, farm houses, dwellings and the town of Hattian is less than 10 km away.”

Snowmelt happens in March but with unpredictable weather, it could happen as early as the end of December – all it takes is a few sunny days, the expert said. Landslides have also blocked roads, severely hampering the delivery and distribution of aid. irin

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