The administration of Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday imposed a fine of RS1.5 million in a hotel for allegedly throwing wastewater waste on Hunza’s Attabad Lake.
The development occurred one day after a foreign tourist and Vlogger called George Buckley posted a video on his Instagram page, claiming that the hotel was pumping water to wastewater to Lake Attabad
In the video, Buckley could be seen standing next to the lake with a friend and saying: “We discovered certain information through a place that wastewater is pumping into the water.”
The tourist also showed muddy water mixed with the lake.
The publication won a significant traction on social networks, which caused a hotel response.
The hotel dismissed the statements in a publication on social networks today, saying: “This lake has been home to us for the past six years.”
“… to throw wastewater water in the lake would be like desecrating our own home. We have never thrown or throw a single liter of wastewater in Lake Attabad.”
The post also said that the muddy appearance of water near the hotel was due to adjacent water currents transported mud, rocks and minerals, which mixed with the water of the lake.
“This phenomenon is known as confluence, where there are two bodies of water that flow separately. If one of the bodies of water is rich in turbidity, this causes a muddy/murky water surface at the point of confluence.”
Buckley responded in the hotel’s video section, saying: “The only document that has provided me and the public that analyzes this environmental problem was the July 2021 report.
“I have asked 3 times to see an inspection report after that date made by the EPA and the local government (which was suggested that it be made quarterly in the 2021 report), but has not provided anything in the last 17 hours since I asked the first time.”
He also said that the property smelled “wastewater”, adding: “Nothing that would create a natural occurrence such as slime runoff, not even close.”
The director of the GB Environment Department, Khadim Hussain Dawn.com that the administration had taken measures against the hotel for a complaint made by a foreign tourist claiming that the hotel wastes were being thrown into the lake.
He said: “The administration has imposed a fine of RS1.5 million and has sealed a large part of the hotel consisting of 30 rooms from where wastewater water had entered the lake.”
According to Hussain, after the video went viral on the Internet, the main secretary of GB took immediate measures and looked for a report by the Hunza Deputy Commissioner, which resulted in a team of 15 members who inspected Attabad Lake today.
Hussain said there was “evidence that water pollution had been found when hotel’s human waste entered the lake.”
He added: “The hotel administration was repairing the wastewater line at the time the waste entered the lake, but there was no great pollution. The fine was imposed on the hotel for negligence.”
He said that a report will be sent to the main secretary on Wednesday to decide more steps, adding that the matter will be heard in the Court of Magistrates by legal procedures.
In addition, he said that “strict measures were taken against the hotel in October 2024 for causing water pollution.”
Talking with Dawn.comHunza’s journalist Alamsin Hussain said the locals have protested several times against the hotel for allegedly causing “severe contamination in the lake.”
“But due to its effectiveness, the administration has been avoiding action,” he said.
Hussain said hotels and buildings cannot be legally built on the shores of the lake.
“The laws in this regard are also clear, but the administration is helpless before the hotel administration. If foreign tourists would not have indicated it, there would have been no action,” he said.
