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Climate body: Tibetan glacial lake discharge caused deadly floods in Nepal

A regional climate monitoring organization said that the flooding in Nepal's Bhote-Koshi River, which killed nine people this week and left over two dozen others missing, was caused by the draining of an supraglacial water in Tibet.

After Tuesday's floods, which washed the 'Friendship Bridge,' linking Nepal and China, at least 19 people remain missing, including six Chinese employees of the Beijing-backed Inland Container Depot.

China's official Xinhua News Agency has reported that 11 people are missing on the Chinese border.

Satellite imagery from Kathmandu's International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said the flood was caused by the draining of a lake north of Nepal’s Langtang Himal range.

Sudan Maharjan is a remote-sensing analyst at ICIMOD and an expert on glaciers. He said, "This is based upon the preliminary analysis based off of the satellite images available." Surrounding debris-covered glaciers can form a supraglacial pond. Experts say that it often starts as a small meltwater pool, which then expands and merges to form a large supraglacial lakes.

Saswata Sannyal, a second ICIMOD official said that such events are increasing at a "unprecedented pace" in the Hindu Kush Mountains, which span Afghanistan, Bangladesh Bhutan, China India Myanmar Nepal Pakistan.

Sanyal stated that "we need to dig deeper into the triggers which are resulting cascading effects."

Nepal's mountainous region is susceptible to climate change effects such as extreme weather patterns, inconsistency of rainfall, flash flooding, landslides, and glacial lake floods.

The early monsoons this year have caused deadly damage in Nepal. At least 38 people are dead or missing in Nepal since May 29. This is according to the National Disaster Relief, Reduction and Management Authority. Reporting by Gopal sharma; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

(source: Reuters)