Gilgit-Baltistan has started facing acute shortage of food as the flood has disconnected the land route of the region with rest of the country. The supply fuel and other items to the Northern Areas have completely been stopped as a large portion of Karakoram Highway (KKH) at various places has been washed off by flood water.
The highway starting from Khyber Pakhtoonkha has been damaged in different areas after the current heavy monsoon rain following floods and its repair could take months. KKH, which is the only lifeline for the people in Gilgit-Baltistan, has faced numerous massive washouts and bridges have collapsed along the route to Gilgit for months.
On the other hand the people in Gilgit and Skardu have started facing shortage of daily use items along with medicines in hospitals. The unavailability of petrol and diesel has also added to the miseries of the people. Beside the fresh flood in River Indus at Ganche, a district of Gilgit-Baltistan, has also been washed out with the loss of 12 lives on Saturday. Talking to Business Recorder from Skardu, a resident said that everything has disappeared from the local markets soon after the disruption of supply from the down country.
The people are in great tense as to how they would survive if the reopening of the land route with Rawalpindi could take months as it was expected, he added. Muhammad Ishaq, a local journalist, said that people were travelling for kilometers long way by flood for the absence of any kind of transport in the whole region of Baltistan. The acute shortage of petroleum products and unaffordable price hike of the basic commodities has multiplied the problems of flood affectees.
All fuel stations have been sealed and the existing stock of petrol and diesel has also been taken by the district administration into its own hands for running official vehicles. However, according to sources, the government of Gilgit-Baltistan has demanded of the federal government to start supply of goods by air while doubling the existing flights to Gilgit and Skardu.