52 lakes in country are at GLOF risk

April 05, 2013

KARACHI: A Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) can wipeout human settlements, and to avoid that, 52 glacial lakes in Pakistan out of the 2,420 are declared as dangerous for inhabitation.

GLOF in Northern Pakistan Project Director Khalil Ahmed said this while addressing a meeting with stakeholder held Thursday at a local hotel.

He said that GLOF is a fairly unique phenomenon, which causes massive water bodies to break due to intense heat or torrential rains, causing flooding.

The meeting was arranged to share the knowledge and enhance the links with key stakeholders and the government of Sindh.

For the awareness of the human settlements suffering with snowmelt flash floods in Northern Pakistan, a four-year project under the title “Reducing Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacial Lake Outburst in Northern Pakistan” was initiated in 2011.