Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
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A man wading through the flood waters in the affected area of monsoon flooding in Roshi village of Nepal's Kavre district on Sept 30.
PHOTO: AFP
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KATHMANDU – Mr Mingma Rita Sherpa was not home when the muddy torrent roared into his village in Nepal without warning, and when he returned, he did not recognise his once beautiful settlement.
It took just moments for freezing flood waters to engulf Thame in the foothills of Mount Everest, a disaster that climate change scientists say is an ominous sign of things to come in the Himalayan nation.
“There is no trace of our house... nothing is left,” Mr Mingma Rita said. “It took everything we owned.”
Nepal is reeling from its worst flooding in decades after ferocious monsoon rains swelled rivers and inundated entire neighbourhoods in the capital Kathmandu, killing at least 236 people.
Last weekend’s disaster
Thame was submerged in August by a glacial lake that burst high in the mountains above the small village, famous for its mountaineering residents.
It was once home to Mr Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world’s highest mountain, Everest, along with the New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary.
Mr Mingma Rita said: “We are afraid to return, there are still lakes above.”
Speaking from the capital Kathmandu, where he has moved, he added: “The fertile land is gone. It is hard to see a future there.”
A glacial lake outburst flood is the sudden release of water collected in former glacier beds.
These lakes are formed by the retreat of glaciers, with the warmer temperatures of human-caused climate change turbocharging the melting of the icy reservoirs.
Glacial lakes are often unstable because they are dammed by ice or loose debris.
‘Rebuild or relocate’
Thame was a popular stop during the trekking season, perched at an altitude of 3,800m beneath soaring snow-capped peaks.
But in August, during the monsoon rains, the village was largely empty. No one was killed, but the flood destroyed half of the village’s 54 homes, a clinic and a hostel. It also wiped out a school started by Mr Hillary.
Mr Mingma Rita, like many in the village, ran a lodge for foreign trekkers. He also worked as a technician at a hydropower plant, a key source of electricity in the region. That too was damaged.
“Some are trying to rebuild, but the land is not stable,” he said. “Parts continue to erode.”
Thame’s residents are scattered, some staying in neighbouring villages, others in Kathmandu.
Local official Mingma Chiri Sherpa said the authorities were surveying the area to assess the risks. “Our focus right now is to aid the survivors. We are working to help the residents rebuild or relocate.”
‘Predict and prepare’
Experts say the flood in Thame was part of a frightening pattern. Glaciers are receding at an alarming rate. Hundreds of glacial lakes formed from glacial melt have appeared in recent decades.
In 2020, more than 2,000 were mapped across Nepal by experts from the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod), with 21 identified as potentially dangerous. Nepal has drained lakes in the past and is planning to drain at least four more.
Icimod geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan examined satellite images of the Thame flood, concluding it was a glacial lake outburst.
“We need to strengthen our monitoring... so that we can, at least to some extent, predict and prepare,” he said. “The risks are there... so our mountain communities must be made aware so they can be prepared”.
Scientists warn of a two-stage impact. Initially, melting glaciers trigger destructive floods. Eventually, the glaciers will dry up, bringing even greater threats.
Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges provide crucial water to around 240 million people in the mountain regions. Over 1.65 billion more depend on them in the South Asian and South-east Asian river valleys below.
‘Himalayas has changed’
Former residents of Thame are raising funds, including Mr Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time in 2024.
Mr Kami Rita said the locale had long been a source of pride as a “village of mountaineers”, but times have changed.
“The place has no future now”, he said. “We are living at risk – not just Thame, other villages downhill also need to be alert.”
The veteran mountaineer said his beloved mountains were under threat. “The Himalayas has changed. We have now not only seen the impact of climate change, but experienced its dangerous consequences too.” AFP
