Landslide diverts River Kunhar in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: A piece of alpine mountain rolled down into River Kunhar, partially diverting the watercourse to the nearby settlements and Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in the Mahandri area here on Sunday.

“We have once again faced the natural calamity as this time around, mountainous alpine forest has been falling into the river, diverting its watercourse to settlements and Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road,” said Shakeel Jani, a local resident.

Mahandri, which had been devastated completely following flash floods wracked havoc and the central bridge at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road was swept away on July 30, has again suffered mammoth landslides.

Residents of Mahandri once remained cut off from the rest of the country from July 30 to August 13; however, the Frontier Works Organisation rebuilt a steel bridge connecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan later on. The residents have been scared due to erosion of the alpine forest into the river the entire day.

A video clip recently went viral on social media, showing a landslide causing a dust storm in the area and settlements wrapped in it.“The government should adopt precautionary measures to avert a big tragedy if landslides continue to block the watercourse and divert it towards the nearby population and Mahandri bazaar,” Jani said.

Later in the day, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Irrigation Department’s machines, which were earlier moved to Mahandri to clear the artificial lake caused by the flash floods in Manor stream, started excavating Kunhar River’s bed downstream to ensure smooth water flow.The people who gathered around the machines fled for safety when a mudslide from the mountain fell into the river.