As climate change warms the Himalayas, disasters like the Nepal floods are becoming more frequent: Study

As climate change warms the Himalayas, disasters like the Nepal floods are becoming more frequent,says study. Himalaya`s mountains File pic

When a wall of water, rocks and mud tore through her remote village in Nepal last week, Pema Tamang and her neighbours fled uphill to a Buddhist shrine that had been rebuilt the previous year after a 2015 earthquake.

The steep mountain folds of the Himalayas, already prone to earthquakes, have seen more frequent flash floods as high mountain glaciers melt, redrawing rivers at sometimes terrifying speed.

Residents have had little time to rebuild from one disaster to the next, raising concerns over whether their communities can endure as climate change accelerates.

"We were able to rebuild the stupa only last year after it was destroyed during the earthquake," Tamang told The Associated Press, referring to the shrine.

"Sheltering in it was how we saved our lives from the floods," she said in a makeshift shelter at a monastery in Kathmandu.

The Aug. 26 floods in Nepal and neighbouring China have killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands missing, including hundreds feared trapped in tunnels at hydropower projects.

The floods were triggered after a collapse of bedrock and glacier ice sent debris and water surging through multiple Himalayan rivers.

Scientists say it is too early to directly link Wednesday's catastrophe to global warming.

But as Earth's temperature rises at a faster rate because of the burning of oil, gas and coal, the chances of such disasters increase, especially in the Himalayan mountains, which are warming considerably faster than many other parts of the world.

"Climate change has been playing a large role in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, causing these kinds of complex disasters which have really impacted downstream communities and investments," said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk resilience expert at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development based in Kathmandu.

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