Flood in Nepal caused by glacial lake outburst August 17, 2024

A glacial lake outburst caused a devastating flood that hit a village in Nepal's Everest region, local government officials and experts said Saturday. REUTERS FILE PIC

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Flood in Nepal caused by glacial lake outburst

By AFP - Agence France Presse

August 17, 2024

The explosion of a glacial lake caused a devastating flood that hit a village in Nepal's Everest region, local government officials and experts said on Saturday.

Climate change experts said it was a clear example of the “catastrophic impacts” that rising global temperatures were having on the people who contributed least to the greenhouse gases that cause this phenomenon.

At least 14 buildings, including seven houses, five hotels, a hostel, and a clinic, were completely swept away by the flood that hit the village of Thame on Friday afternoon.

No deaths were reported, but the scale of the brown, muddy flood waters that swept through Thame village was shocking, as videos posted on social media by local authorities show.

On Saturday, the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said that the flash flood was “caused by a bursting flood from glacial Lake Thyanbo”.

The center was investigating the causes and impact, it added.

Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, ICIMOD's cryosphere analyst, said the disaster was a “painful reminder” of the impacts of rising temperatures on mountain communities.

“Millions of mountain people have contributed nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, but face the catastrophic impacts of these emissions with increasing frequency and severity,” he said.

Jagat Prasad Bhusal, a local government official, said that an aerial survey of the area on Saturday morning also confirmed the explosion of a glacial lake.

“There are several glacial lakes and one of them has burst... the beautiful, green village of Thame has been desolately transformed overnight,” he said.

Thame, a Sherpa village at an altitude of around 3,800 meters (12,470 feet), was home to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world's highest mountain, Everest, together with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

Since then, the small village has been home to record-breaking mountaineers, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time this year.

“In the face of ongoing climate change, this event is tragic and disheartening,” Sherpa posted on her Instagram.

Scientists warn that as climate change causes Himalayan glaciers to melt alarmingly, communities could be even more exposed to unpredictable and costly disasters.

Hundreds of glacial lakes formed by melting glaciers have appeared out of nowhere in the Himalayas in recent decades and 2,070 were documented in Nepal in a 2020 study by ICIMOD.

Unlike normal lakes, glacier lakes are unstable because they are usually dammed by ice or sediment made up of loose rocks and debris.

When the accumulated water bursts through these accidental barriers, known as glacial lake outburst floods, massive flooding can occur downstream.

More than 70 people were killed in northeast India in October 2023 after a high-altitude glacial lake suddenly burst.

Meanwhile, torrential storms hitting South Asia have killed hundreds of people since June, with more than 170 people killed in Nepal due to flooding, landslides, and lightning.

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