Glacial Lake Floods Threaten Nepal Village, Ancient Monastery
Global warming said to be the cause of a disaster that recurs like clockwork.
Halji village, located in northwestern Nepal’s remote Humla district, is a settlement of approximately 400 inhabitants. Best known for its 1000-year-old monastery, a potential World Heritage Site, the village has also become increasingly popular among trekkers due to its position at the end of the Great Himalayan Trail.
However, since 2006, the village has been repeatedly struck by glacial lake outpour floods (GLOF), which have occurred annually on approximately the same day every summer. This year proved no exception, and on June 30th, after a glacial lake burst in the mountains some 1,700 meters above Halji, a flash flood rushed through the village destroying buildings, farmlands and infrastructure.
A Nepali Times article written by Astrid Hovden, a PhD fellow at the University of Oslo, describes (with photos and video) the most recent GLOF to hit Halji:
At around 4:30 pm there was a loud roar from up the valley, and everyone ran out of their houses. At first, the raging brown water was retained by the gabion walls, the last stretch of which was built only a month earlier. Soon, the embankments gave way and the water and the boulders raced towards the village with great force.
The ground shook and the water was nearly black because of the landslides along the banks. People managed to evacuate in time and move most of their belongings, but had to watch as their homes and fields were carried away.
According to Hovden, the recent floods are a result of glacial lakes rising to dangerous levels, an event caused by global warming. Although no lives were lost in this year’s flood, two houses were demolished and some poorer families lost all their land. Hovden warns that future flooding could cause even more devastation, including to the 11th-century Rinchenling Monastery, one of the oldest in Nepal.
To minimize the effects of an even bigger disaster, Hovden’s article suggests assessing the risk of future outbursts and developing long-term mitigation strategies. These may involve controlled drainage of the lake and building further gabion walls to divert water away from the village.
Click here to read Astrid Hovden’s article in Nepali Times
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Article re-published from the Heritage on the Wire Blog, Global Heritage Fund, August 3, 2011, Glacial Lake Floods Threaten Nepal Village, Ancient Monastery.
Cover Photo, Top Left: A glacial lake outburst flood rushes through Nepal’s Halji village. The flood, caused by global warming, has occurred annually since 2006. Photo: Astrid Hovden
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