Glacier Advancement and Its Effect on Local Community

Hussaini Village is situated in Hunza valley, 145 km North of Gilgit and 45 km from Ali Abad in Central Hunza. Hunza River flows in to the east while the Karakoram Highway (KKH) passes to its west.Hussaini Village is situated on 74°52'23.42" East longitude and 36°25'29.14" North latitude at an altitude of 2556 meters (Source-GPS) above sea level. The old main village is on the western-bank and at the lateral moraine of Hussaini glacier and below Borith Lake. The newly irrigated land, called Zarabod, is on the left bank. The total population is 639 souls, living in 86 households. (2007) the disaster situation in Hussaini village due the glacier advancement for last many decades and no one can imagine how much the local community are surfing from these disasters. For last many years both, for drinking and irrigation water, the people of Hussaini ware working on glacier 8 to 12 hours on daily basis. A glacier is located in the west and the Khunzhrav River is flowing in the East of the village but due to lake of resources there is no water in the village. It is an example of criminal neglect. A drought like situation hovers on the village for last many years. As the glacier is advancing very fast toward the Khnzhrav River and KKH - located at a distance of some 254 meters, the four channels dug out from the snout of the glacier have been destroyed and now the temporary solution was obtaining insufficient water through a vulnerable pipeline from the southern glacier's originated stream to the northern snout channels. This pipeline was also washed away by the recent flood.