Written by Arun B. Shrestha, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. This is the second of three blog posts tracing a journey to view the impacts of climate change in a region of Nepal. You can read the first post here.
At 12:30 we reached the town of Barahbise, where we met with a group of about 40 people.
What we heard from the local people at Barahbise: Older participants shared their memories of the 1981 glacial lake outburst flood, which destroyed homes and property. It was very interesting to learn how the local people perceive their risks. They are aware of the risk of floods but are not taking measures to reduce it. Many new houses are built right next to the river in very high-risk zones. The residents’ concern, on the other hand, is that the government is not doing anything to protect their property.
“During the monsoon season, we rarely sleep at night. We constantly fear that a flood wave will sweep us away. We feel the bridge is high and safe from flooding, and some nights we spend on the bridge chatting with each other,” said Bishnu Shrestha.
“The river was much deeper when I was young, and behind our houses there was enough buffer land,” an older resident said. “Now, after several floods, the river has widened and the river bed has risen.”
We later visited the Bhote Koshi power plant, built about 10 years ago, which is also highly vulnerable to flash floods. The company has installed an early warning system (pictured at right), but its flood sensor is located not far upstream, at the China/Nepal border. Therefore, the system, although technologically advanced, can only provide five minutes’ lead warning. Furthermore, while the system can save lives by helping people to evacuate, the power plant itself remains at risk.
Next, we stopped briefly to observe the remnants of the old Phulping Bridge, which was washed away by the flood of 1981. The new bridge is constructed at a higher level to avoid the same fate. It also has an arched construction that would permit floodwaters to flow through more safely. Many kilometers of destroyed, abandoned highway could be seen even 30 years after the flood event.
We passed through Larcha village, which was engulfed by a landslide dam outburst flood in 1996; in this case, heavy rainfall caused a landslide which dammed the flowing water, and the backed-up waters then burst out. This flood killed 54 people and washed away 22 houses. We saw how people had resettled in the same place, exposing themselves to the same risk.
At around 4 p.m. we reached the final point of our journey, the friendship bridge over the Sun Koshi River at the border between China and Nepal. Here we saw the sensors of Bhote Koshi Power’s early warning system. The glaciers creating the flood risk are all located on the other side of this border – a striking reminder of the transboundary nature of the problem.
What we’re doing next: As a result of our expedition, the media have published several high-profile articles (including many in Nepali) which should be helpful in raising the government’s interest in the risk to the mountain communities and infrastructure, and on the need to take proactive measures to manage the risk. It should also help encourage risk management measures at the local level, particularly in planning settlements. It is hoped that the media reporting will provide impetus for the preparation of national land use guidelines, whose absence is greatly felt in the country as a whole; and maybe even provide a stepping stone for developing a transboundary early warning system for glacial lake outburst floods.
To find out more about the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, click here. And for more information about the issues discussed in this blog post, ICIMOD has prepared the following fact sheets:
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