Nepal flood waters smash through village

Nepal flood waters smash through village
by AFP Staff Writers
Kathmandu (AFP) Aug 16, 2024

A devastating flood of freezing water smashed through a village Friday in Nepal's Everest region, local government and army officials said, with experts suspecting a glacial lake outburst.

No deaths were reported but the scale of the brown and muddy flood waters surging through the village of Thame were shocking, videos posted on social media by the local authorities showed.

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 along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

The small village has since been home to record-making mountaineers, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time this year.

"No death has been reported but about 15 houses have been swept away," Nepal army spokesman Gaurav Kumar KC told AFP.

Rescue teams were at the site helping people to safety, he added.

Scientists warn that as climate change causes Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, communities can be further exposed to unpredictable and costly disasters.

"There are indications that this incident is a glacial lake outburst flood, but we are investigating to confirm," Arun Bhakta Shrestha, climate change specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said.

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

Local government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal said that people in villages downstream had been alerted to move to a safe area.

"We have not received news of any deaths so far," Bhusal said.

"There were not many people in Thame as it is not a tourist season.

Unlike normal lakes, glacier lakes are unstable because they are often dammed by ice or sediment composed of loose rock and debris.

When accumulating water bursts through these accidental barriers, known as glacial lake outbursts flood, massive flooding can occur downstream.

In October 2023, more than 70 people were killed in India's northeast after a high-altitude glacial lake suddenly burst.

Torrential storms lashing South Asia meanwhile have killed hundreds of people since June, with over 170 people dead in Nepal due to flooding, landslides and lightning.