The National Disaster Management Authority in Pakistan is posting daily updates on the situation with the Attabad landslide on its website here. The reports appear with a lag of about 4 days, but nonetheless provide a helpful insight into the rate of progress. As of 6th Feb a total of 26,000 cubic metres of debris had been moved to create the spillway. Meanwhile the lake level is increasing at 60 cm per day - it will be interesting to see if this rate decreases with the recent weather.
This impressive rate of progress appears to be possible because the area that they are excavating is very fine-grained, as this video shows:
Meanwhile, the ever helpful Pamir Times reports that the river blockage is starting to have substantive impacts downstream due to the reduced flow levels. These impacts are clearly most acute directly below the dam, where the river is now dry, but extend right down to the Tarbela dam, close to Islamabad.
The efforts currently being made will only bring forward the overflow date and diminish the volume of water released when the dam ultimately breaches and fails. The material shown being excavated looks too erodible to withstand teh overflow. Effort would be better spent forming a spillway with armoured rock lining using the large blocks visible. Jeff
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