Nepal PM demands climate action after deadly Himalayan disaster

Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called for international action on climate change after a Himalayan flood killed at least 939 people and left nearly 4,500 missing.

Shah said the flood in the Bhote Koshi River in Rasuwa was “not an ordinary flood.” He described it as one of the region’s major disasters, triggered by an avalanche of snow and ice after a glacial collapse on the China-Nepal border.

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not an ordinary flood

The precise cause of the collapse remains unclear, but the disaster has sharpened warnings about the risks facing the Himalayas. Scientists say glaciers across the world are melting as temperatures rise, and that the Himalayas are losing ice at an accelerating rate.

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This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change.

“This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change,” Shah said. He urged Nepal to raise the issue more forcefully with the international community, arguing that the country is suffering the effects of emissions produced largely by wealthy and industrialized nations despite contributing little to global warming.

The wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges provide water for about 240 million people in mountain areas and another 1.65 billion people in South and Southeast Asian river valleys. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned during a 2023 visit to Nepal that rapidly melting glaciers were causing the “rooftops of the world” to cave in. U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell called the latest disaster a devastating reminder of the fragility of mountain environments.

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rooftops of the world

Nepal’s economy already faces pressure, leaving the largely rural country with limited resources to respond to reconstruction costs that the government says could reach billions of dollars.

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devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be