Dawn was just beginning to break over the mountain village, when a sudden crash broke the morning stillness.
From the overhanging glacier, a torrent of silty water rushed down the slopes, then a thick cloud of dust carpeted the scene.
On the day when the waves tumbled into his village of Hassanabad, in northern Pakistan, Javed Rahi, a retired mathematics teacher, was to attend the wedding of a nephew.
“I expected the women and children to sing and dance (…) Instead, I heard them screaming in fear, says the almost septuagenarian.
It was like the end of time.
In the disaster, which occurred in May, in the middle of a heat wave, nine houses were destroyed and half a dozen damaged.
The surge of water also washed away two micro-hydroelectric power stations and the bridge that linked this isolated village to the rest of the country.
Already sixteen cases of sudden emptying of a glacial lake recorded this year
Pakistan has more than 7,000 glaciers, more than any other country outside the polar lands.
But with climate change, these are rapidly melting, creating thousands of glacial lakes.
Thirty-three of these lakes, formed in the Himalayan, Hindu Kush or Karakoram ranges, are at high risk of overflowing and spilling millions of cubic meters of water and debris downstream, authorities said.
At least sixteen cases of sudden emptying of a glacial lake (Glof, according to the English acronym), caused by rising temperatures, have already been recorded this year, compared to five or six in 2021, the government said this week.
The damage is usually so extensive that it is difficult for local communities to recover from such disasters.
In Hassanabad, Javed Rahi and other residents who lost their homes were moved to a camp near the village.
Under their makeshift tents, drag the rare possessions they were able to save and mattresses to sleep on.
“We never thought we would go from rich to ragged,” sighs Javed Rahi.
Among the countries most at risk
Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
It is in 8th position among the countries most threatened by extreme weather phenomena, according to a study by the NGO Germanwatch.
It faces increasingly frequent, anticipated and stifling periods of heat.
This year, temperatures have exceeded 50°C in places.
Floods and droughts have killed and displaced thousands of people in recent years, damaging infrastructure and destroying livelihoods.
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the lack of information on changes in Pakistan's glacial regions makes it difficult to accurately predict where a disaster could occur.
Although Hassanabad had a warning system, with cameras to monitor the level of glacial lakes, residents were persuaded to live high enough to be safe, according to local officials.
Zahida Sher, who also lost her house that day, explains that the force of the waves swept away buildings that had been considered very solid until then.
Unaware of the threat
Mountain communities depend on livestock, orchards, farms and tourism to survive.
But everything is threatened by climate change.
"Our economy is agrarian and people don't have enough resources to leave here," said Zahida Sher, researcher for a local development NGO.
According to Siddique Ullah Baig, a natural hazard management expert, around seven million people are under threat from Glofs in northern Pakistan.
But most are unaware of this.
“People continue to build houses in flood-prone places.
They are not informed and prepared to face a natural disaster,” he explains.
A little north of Hassanabad lies the hamlet of Passu, which has lost nearly 70% of its population and area after being hit by flash floods and due to natural river erosion.
The village is wedged between two glaciers, to the north and south, and the Hunza River to the east.
These three natural elements are called "dragons" by the inhabitants, for their power of destruction.
"Dragon's Mouth"
“The village of Passu rests in the mouths of these three dragons,” observes Ali Qurban Mughani, a local scholar, pointing to the glacial mass overlooking it.
As he speaks, workers are building a concrete wall on one of the nearby banks, in an attempt to protect the village from erosion.
Kamran Iqbal had invested 500,000 rupees (2,350 euros), a sum borrowed from a local NGO, to open a picnic area for tourists, in a place which enjoys a breathtaking view.
The beauty of the glaciers has made this region one of the most touristic in the country.
His business was going well, until this "night of horror" in 2021, when a flood took everything away.
On the front line of climate change
Even if the most ambitious international objectives of limiting the rise in temperature linked to climate change to 1.5° by the end of the century are respected, nearly a third of Pakistan's glaciers could have melted by then, said the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod), based in Nepal, in a study published in 2019. to drought and desertification.
And before that, we may have to deal with intense and frequent flooding along the rivers, and of course flash floods,” said Aisha Khan, head of Pakistan's Mountains and Glaciers Protection Organization.
Pakistan, home to a population of 220 million, says it is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite this, it is particularly threatened by climate change, because it is very dependent on its agriculture and its natural resources, sectors that are very sensitive to climate change.
“We don't have any factories or industries here that can cause pollution (…) Our environment is clean,” says 60-year-old Amanullah Khan, one of the village elders of Hassanabad.
"But when it comes to the threat posed by climate change, we are on the front line," he said.
Asif Sakhi, a local political activist, notes that people in the region are increasingly fearful of the threat posed by the glaciers, and regrets:
“This area belongs to the glaciers;
we occupied it.
»
World
Glacier collapsed in Italy: Eleventh victim identified
World
Kyrgyzstan: In the middle of a hike, he films an avalanche... which ends up burying him
Planet
Pakistan
Climate change
Global warming