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🇳🇵 Nepal /Environment & Climate

Nepal Is Draining Four Glacial Lakes, but Scientists Say It Is Not Enough

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources New plan
  • Nepal plans to lower water levels in four glacial lakes identified as high risk for outburst floods in the Koshi and Gandaki basins.
  • The project has about $50 million in funding and could benefit roughly 2.3 million people living in vulnerable mountain areas.
  • Scientists say a planned reduction modeled on earlier three-metre projects may not provide enough protection, while early warning systems and land-use controls remain necessary.

Nepal is preparing to drain four glacial lakes, but scientists who have studied them warn that the plan may not make downstream settlements safe. The concern has gained urgency after catastrophic floods in the Bhotekoshi region caused deaths and extensive property damage.

The roughly $50 million project covers Lumding Tsho and Hongu-2 in Solukhumbu, Lower Barun in Sankhuwasabha and Thulagi, also known as Dona, in Manang. A 2020 assessment by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and the United Nations Development Programme identified the lakes as high risk. It flagged 47 potentially dangerous lakes across Nepal, Tibet and India, including 21 in Nepal.

Construction will not begin this year.

· Rajan BhattaraiNepal’s GLOF Sanjeevani Project director described the project’s preparatory timetable.

Nepal has more than 2,000 glacial lakes, but only two have been drained so far. The country’s mountain region faces combined risks from climate change, earthquakes and geological instability. As glaciers shrink, lakes left behind them can expand and produce glacial lake outburst floods.

We will finish the refined design first.

· Rajan BhattaraiHe explained why construction would be delayed while the project design is revised.

The project, known as the GLOF Sanjeevani Project, is funded by a $36.16 million Green Climate Fund grant, with the government and partner organisations expected to provide another $13.8 million. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology is implementing it with the UNDP and says about 2.3 million people in mountain areas stand to benefit.

This year’s work will focus on appointing consultants and completing an environmental impact assessment. Rajan Bhattarai, the national programme director, said construction would not begin this year because the design must first be refined. Asked how far the four lakes would be lowered, he said the figure had not yet been determined, though it would be similar to earlier work at Tsho Rolpa and Imja.

It will be somewhere around what was done at Tsho Rolpa and Imja.

· Rajan BhattaraiHe described the expected scale of lake-level reductions, while noting that the study had not yet been completed.

Tsho Rolpa was lowered by three metres in 2000, while Imja was lowered by about 3.4 metres in 2016. Alton C Byers, a mountain-environment specialist, said the three-metre benchmark was not sufficient. The article also stresses that risk assessments, early warning systems, outlet management and cautious construction in possible flood paths must accompany lake drainage.

This idea of a three-metre reduction is based on Tsho Rolpa, and it is not sufficient.

· Alton C ByersThe mountain-environment specialist criticized using earlier drainage projects as the benchmark.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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