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IN THE picturesque valley of Golen, located over 20km northeast of Chitral city, summer once unfolded in all its resplendence. Visitors from across the district would flock to Golen during the warmer months to enjoy its cool mountain air, try their hand at trout fishing, and marvel at its lush green meadows.
Yet, in recent years, that once-bountiful summer has become a source of anxiety for Golen natives.
The cause lies in the glaciers, those primordial agglomerations of ice that had stood sentinel over the valley for centuries, which are now melting at an alarming rate and forming large, unstable lakes in their wake.
On the evening of July 7, 2019, one such glacial lake burst its banks and ravaged the valley, destroying homes and orchards, damaging the headworks of the 108MW Golen Gol hydropower project, plunging the district into darkness for several days. The very next year, Golen experienced another glacial lake outburst flood (Glof).
