Bridge collapse in Pakistan due to flood

A bridge in northern Pakistan collapsed at the weekend after a glacial lake outburst caused by a recent heatwave released huge amounts of water into the stream and surrounding areas, local media reported.

“A compact bridge would be temporarily installed to restore traffic,” while construction of a permanent bridge would take about seven to eight months, National Highway Authority chair Muhammad Khurram Agha said.

Media reports quoted experts as saying the water volume at the Shisper glacier lake had increased by 40% over the past 20 days due to unusually high and abrupt temperature rises in the north of the country.

Glaciers in the Himalaya, Hindu Kush and Karkoram mountain ranges have melted rapidly due to a recent heatwave, creating thousands of glacial lakes in northern Pakistan.

In Hassanabad, local officials were helping those affected and ensuring that people were not stranded due to the flooding.

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, urged the federal and provincial governments to take precautionary measures to manage the intense heat wave, which touched highs of 47 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.

For the first time in decades, Pakistan had gone from winter to summer without the spring season, Ms Rehman said.

Scientists have linked the early onset of an intense summer to climate change, and said more than a billion people in Pakistan and neighbouring India were in some way vulnerable to the extreme heat.