By Our Reporter
The Thame disaster on Friday last week showed how vulnerable were the settlements in the Himalayas of Nepal amid the effect of climate change.
Sudden massive floods in the Thame River at Thame in Khumbu Pasang Rural Municipality-5 in the afternoon of August 16 caused massive destruction in the area sweeping away and destroying houses, hotels and a school. The flood wiped out 20 houses and hotels, three schools, a hostel and a health clinic. However, no human casualty was reported even though initially it was reported that a man went missing, he was found safe later.
As the area has only hotels and homestays and the people of the area were living in Kathmandu and other places in the off-season of tourism leaving only guards in their houses, the casualty was averted. Also, the flood occurred in the day time and the small number of people living there got information about the floods in time. Had the floods occurred in the night, scores of people would have been killed.
Now it is confirmed that the massive floods resulted due to the outburst of two glacial lakes in the Khumbu region.
With the increasing global temperature, there had been a risk of glacial outbursts for years. Nepal experienced one of the most destructive outburst this monsoon.
According to a statement of the Flood Forecasting Division, the temperature saw a constant rise in maximum temperature in a week from August 9 to August 15. The maximum temperature recorded at 9.6 degrees Celsius on August 9 increased to 15.9 degrees Celsius on August 15 while the area also saw heavy rainfall. The rainfall and temperature rise led to the outburst of two glacial lakes.
What happened in Thame should come as an eye-opener for the authorities and they should constantly monitor the condition of the glacial lakes and take preventive measures to avoid destructions.
Obviously, Nepal as a mountainous country is now under serious threat of climate change, and we have started suffering from it.
Login to add a comment