Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes

Find out what’s new on ST website and app.

The Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan is a top tourist destination and boasts about 13,000 glaciers.

PHOTO: AFP

GILGIT, Pakistan – Pakistan will ban for five years the construction of new hotels around picturesque lakes in the north that attract tens of thousands of tourists each year, a government agency said.

Unregulated construction of hotels and guest houses in Gilgit-Baltistan – which boasts around 13,000 glaciers, more than any other country on earth outside the polar regions – has sparked major concerns about environmental degradation.

The natural beauty of the region has made it a top tourist destination, with towering peaks looming over the Old Silk Road, and a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers and ice-blue lakes.

However, construction has exploded in recent years, led by companies from outside the region, straining water and power resources, and increasing waste.

“If we let them construct hotels at such pace, there will be a forest of concrete,” Mr Khadim Hussain, a senior official at the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Authority told AFP on July 18.

“People don’t visit here to see concrete; people come here to enjoy natural beauty,” he added.

In June, a foreign tourist posted a video on Instagram – which quickly went viral – alleging wastewater was being discharged by a hotel into Lake Attabad, which serves as a fresh water source for Hunza.

The next day, the authorities fined the hotel more than US$5,000 (S$6,400).

Mr Asif Sakhi, a political activist and resident of the Hunza Valley, welcomed the ban.

“We have noticed rapid changes in the name of tourism and development,” he said, adding