A devastating flood of freezing water smashed through a village in the Everest region on Friday sweeping away at least a dozen houses, AFP reported citing the local government and army officials.
According to the news agency, experts suspect a glacial lake outburst while local media said that the flood was triggered by an avalanche.
The state-owned RSS reported that the flood swept away one person at Thame village in Solukhumbu district but the identity of the missing has not been ascertained. However, there have been conflicting reports about the casualties as the Nepalese Army reportedly denied any human casualty.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Dwarika Prasad Ghimire told RSS that six houses, five hotels, a school and a clinic were washed away by the sudden flood.
According to DSP Ghimire, seven other houses are at risk.
The scale of the brown and muddy flood waters surging through the village of Thame were shocking, AFP reported referring to the videos posted on social media by the local authorities.
Thame, a Sherpa village at an altitude of around 3,800 meters, was home to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to conquer the world's highest peak – Mt Everest – along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
The small village has since been home to record-making mountaineers, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time this year, added AFP
"No death has been reported but about 15 houses have been swept away," AFP quoted army spokesperson Gaurav Kumar KC as saying.
Rescue teams from the Nepalese Army and Nepal Police have been mobilized in the disaster site, RSS added.
Scientists have long been warning that climate change has caused Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, exposing the downstream communities to unpredictable and costly disasters.
"There are indications that this incident is a glacial lake outburst flood, but we are investigating to confirm," AFP quoted Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a climate change specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), as saying.
According to AFP, a 2020 study by the ICIMOD found that hundreds of glacial lakes formed from glacial melt have appeared out of nowhere in the Himalayas in recent decades and 2,070 were documented in Nepal.
Unlike normal lakes, glacier lakes are unstable because they are often dammed by ice or sediment composed of loose rock and debris, added AFP.
When accumulating water bursts through these accidental barriers, known as glacial lake outbursts flood, massive flooding can occur downstream.
A devastating flash flood in the Seti River in 2012 killed 72 people.
Recently, Mustang and Manang districts, known for limited rainfall, have been grappling with an unexpected surge in heavy rains and subsequent floods of late – all attributed to climate change.
A massive flood in Kagbeni in August last year caused significant destruction, demolishing several houses, hotels, temples, ashrams, schools, and police stations along the path from Muktinath to Kagkhola.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Nepal in October 2020 had called on the world to “stop the madness” of climate change. In a brief statement on X, Guterres said glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at a "record level." We must make sure that we limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
(With inputs from AFP and RSS)
