Nepal and China discuss sharing data on glacier disasters

Three months before a wall of water, mud and rock tore through a Himalayan valley on the Nepal-China border, officials from both countries met in Kathmandu to discuss how to track such risks.

The May 27 meeting brought together 10 Nepalese officials and about a dozen Chinese representatives, including officials from Tibet, according to an agenda prepared by Nepal and reviewed by Reuters. Discussions covered floods, weather and glacier-related hazards. Participants proposed joint risk-reduction measures, including inventories of glacial lakes and maps identifying dangerous areas.

But two Nepalese officials said they did not receive as much information as they wanted from China afterward, particularly on glacier risks and water levels. Binod Parajuli, a Nepalese government hydrologist, said Chinese participants told the meeting they lacked the mandate to sign an agreement addressing Nepal’s requests and called for further discussions.

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substantial progress

Nepalese officials said the priority remains deeper cooperation with China. China’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the meeting or Nepal’s demand for more information. The Chinese embassy in Nepal said on X that the two countries had stayed in close contact and made “substantial progress” at the meeting on cross-border disaster information sharing. It said Chinese and international experts faced major challenges monitoring hazards in the remote Himalayan region and that Chinese teams had shared important information with Nepal “in a timely manner”.

Officials and experts cautioned that the slow progress they described was not a major factor in the latest disaster. The glacier collapse triggered a catastrophic mudslide that killed nearly 800 people in both countries and left more than 3,000 missing. Recovery is expected to cost Nepal an estimated tenth of its annual economic output.

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in a timely manner