THE story of the residents of Shishkat and Ainabad in Gilgit-Baltistan is that of a path forward carved doggedly out of misfortune, but followed by looming danger. The two villages were submerged in 2010, when a massive landslide blocked the flow of the Hunza river and created the Attabad lake. At least 20 people were killed and hundreds were displaced; large tracts of cultivated land, orchards and forests were swallowed up, as was a slice of the Karakoram Highway, cutting upper Hunza off and disrupting trade between Pakistan and China. The situation led a Rawalpindi-based businessman to establish an enterprise ferrying passengers and cargo across the lake, while some of the displaced also found jobs here. Once the road link was restored, though, the businessman pulled out and the villagers tried to turn the situation to their advantage by pooling whatever money they had and buying the boats and motorboats he had brought in. Since 2016, these vessels and the tourists that the idyllic area draws have allowed some 300 families to eke out an income, even offering the hope that the venture may be worthy of expansion.

Recently, however, a Lahore-based businessman started the construction of a large-scale tourist resort that is set to open next summer. This leaves the boatmen very apprehensive: deeper pockets could easily put them out of business entirely. The businessman insists that jobs will be created for the local population, but the fears remain: will this actually be a blow to their livelihoods? Will it upset the area’s delicate ecological balance? And what of managing traffic and resources? The situation is a lesson in the need for tourism and development projects to be undertaken in collaboration with those directly affected, rather than over their heads. Other such initiatives have failed for precisely these reasons, a prime example being the New Murree Development Project. Measures need to be taken so that locals’ lives are not destroyed — and in the case of this region, destroyed again.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2018