THIS refers to the article titled ‘Silver lining of the Attabad Lake disaster and CPEC’ (July 19), which was all praise for the development taking place around the lake in Hunza in the shape of hotels and tourist attractions. Sadly, there is no mention of whether a proper and impartial environmental impact assessment was carried out for each of the projects coming up, and what measures, if any, have been adopted to mitigate environmental damage.

One has even heard that some of the hotels do not have any sewage treatment and disposal systems in place, and raw sewage and waste is being quietly discharged into the lake.

Further, 100-150 speedboats and an unspecified number of jet-skis are apparently operating in the lake. If these are not all electric-powered, one shudders to think of the pollution these will be causing to the lake and to the marine life.

The way Hunza is being destroyed, this pristine natural treasure may soon end up becoming yet another ecological, environ-mental and architectural disaster the way it all happened with the Murree Hills.

Zohare Ali Shairff
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2021