U.S. ended Nepal disaster-monitoring support a year before devastating floods

The United States stopped supporting Nepal’s disaster-monitoring program soon after Donald Trump began his second term, ending work that critics say could have helped residents prepare for natural disasters.

CNN reported that funding for SERVIR-HKH, a program monitoring landslide risks in Nepal, was cut after the Trump administration took office in January 2025. The initiative, run through NASA and USAID, uses advanced satellite information to help prevent disasters, respond to climate change and strengthen food security.

The program began in 2005 and later expanded to the Himalayan region, including Nepal and Afghanistan, in 2010. Trump ordered a halt to overseas development assistance on his first day back in office. USAID was moved under the State Department in July and effectively dismantled.

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The funding cut stopped efforts to improve awareness of landslide conditions, and we could not complete the ground-deformation monitoring work needed for landslide forecasts.

Experts said the program could not have predicted the exact timing of rare glacial collapses, but it could have identified areas at high risk of landslides. Former project leader Birendra Bajracharya said the funding cut stopped efforts to improve awareness of landslide conditions and left ground-deformation monitoring unfinished.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development took over some equipment, but it can now monitor major river flows and forest fires without producing flood forecasts. Marco Tedesco, a geophysicist at Columbia University, criticized the funding decision, saying, "Taking resources away from existing projects is never a desirable direction."

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Taking resources away from existing projects is never a desirable direction.