South Asia

India has approved the export of electricity to Nepal for 18 hours per day until December 31 after a devastating flood in the Himalayan nation last month destroyed about a 10th of its capacity. The deluge, caused by the collapsed glacier in Nepal and Tibet, killed more than 1,400 people and destroyed over 12 hydroelectric plants?in Nepal. More than?5,300 missing people include 900 workers from power stations. The ministry announced that it had approved the export of up to 654 Megawatts. It added that the amount of power exported from January will be reviewed in December. The approval would help...

According to a study released earlier this month, the Himalayas is approaching a tipping-point as 'glaciers' melt faster now than they did a decade before. This threatens?water security, as the region is expected to reach "peak water" in the mid-20th century. The?findings?follow the collapse of an Himalayan Glacier in late August, along the Nepal-Tibet Border. This caused flash floods and cascading land slides in the valleys beneath. More than 5,300 people are missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region. At least 1,300 deaths have been confirmed. The study concluded that as glaciers retreat they leave behind unstable glacial ice lakes,...

After last month's floods, Nepalese army has turned to drones to provide relief to the displaced. Since a Himalayan iceberg broke off at the Nepal-China boundary in late August, more than 5,000 people have been confirmed missing and dead in Nepal. "Most our helicopters are busy with rescue operations." Drones are the only way to deliver food, medicine, fuel and other 'essentials'. He said drones can be used to transport up to 60 kg (132 lbs), and are capable of traveling up to 4 km (2 miles). They have already made a difference for communities that desperately need aid. A...

Kabir Maharjan, a delirious man, drifted in-and-out of consciousness in the darkness of a?pool muddied with water. He had been trapped in a tunnel for nine days under the wreckage caused by Nepal's worst flooding disaster in decades. He did not recognise his wife when he woke up in a hospital, after a miraculous rescue. He asked her, confused, why she hadn't given him a place to sleep sooner. Maharjan is believed to be one of hundreds hydropower workers who were buried by a collapsed glacier above Nepal's Trishuli Valley on August 26. The wall of mud and water unleashed...

Sejourne’s 'cabinet' released a statement on Friday stating that the EU's Industry Chief Stephane 'Sejourne decided to propose a 'broad ban' on the export of wastes, including aluminum scrap, 'to non-OECD nations'. Sejourne was expected to announce long-awaited measures for trade on September 23. These would only limit exports of aluminum scrap. In the internal discussion, it was revealed that the tool could only cover?around half of the scrap import. The Executive Vice President has withdrawn the proposal in order to look at a different proposal that is independent of trade instruments. We are currently working on a?act delegated under...

On Friday, Australian disaster response experts left for Nepal to "join" the search for survivors following the Himalayan floods. The government had expressed "serious concern" about the welfare of the 36'missing' citizens. After a collapsed glacier triggered floods on the 26th of August, more than 1,200 people have been confirmed dead and?some 5,00 remain missing. According to the Nepalese government, 583 foreigners are missing. Authorities said that a 15-member Australian Disaster Assistance Response Team consisting primarily of drone pilots in state emergency services was sent to Nepal after the government requested it. "We still hold out hope that some people...

KATHMANDU, September 4 - Property, housing, and infrastructure valued at?at least?387.5 billion Nepalese Rupees ($2.56 'billion) were lost during 'Nepal's' 'catastrophic flooding' last week, according to the head of the disaster authority. Dharma Raj Upreti said that the cost of restoring power, providing drinking water, and building temporary shelters in the first four months would be approximately $52.6 million. These are estimated amounts. "We have calculated these?in coordination?with different?concerned?agencies and departments," Upreti stated, adding that a more detailed assessment will be made soon. Upreti, a senior official at the Nepali government, said that Nepal would need to rebuild 20,000 homes...

China has fully reopened a road leading to the Gyirong Border?crossing?into Nepal, one week after sections?were washed out by catastrophic flooding. Heavy machinery can now reach the main disaster area for the first. China airdropped equipment and supplies for frontline rescuers who had trekked through mountains to reach the site. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a large number of heavy machines, as well as equipment to strengthen search operations, have now arrived in the area where an inspection complex for the Chinese border once stood. CCTV showed footage of rescue crews and excavators and said that they had deployed...

A senior U.N. official has warned that the Himalayan region is at risk of future 'glacial floods'. This comes as the death toll in Nepal's 'last' week's' flood, which was triggered by an iceberg's collapse, exceeded 1,000. Hydroelectric power is not the only thing at risk. Riverbanks, where millions of people live, could become uninhabitable. Kanni Wignaraja is an assistant secretary general at the U.N. She told?prenezzeugsprach?sprachhnen in an interview, "Technology cannot keep up to date with the U. or the U.N. In an interview, Kanni Wignaraja, assistant secretary-general at the U.N. said: "Technology cannot move fast enough to prevent...

Rescue teams from China worked through the night and the relentless rain to repair the last kilometre of the only road that leads to the Gyirong Border crossing into Nepal. The road was destroyed by a catastrophic slide last week. The reopening of the China-Nepal Border crossing was a struggle with the elements. Rescuers were working in a narrow mountain canyon squeezed between crumbling mountains and a raging stream. State broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday that the rapids have repeatedly swept away efforts to rebuild a road over the last few days. CCTV footage shows excavators standing on shattered road...

Experts and officials from Nepal and China met in Kathmandu three months before the wall of water, rock and mud that hurled down a Himalayan valley bordering Nepal and China killed hundreds. The agenda for the meeting, which took place in the capital of Nepal on May 27, included 10 Nepalese officials and 12 Chinese officials, including those from the Tibet region, where the disaster occurred. They discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries to monitor and respond effectively to hazards such as floods, bad weather, and glacier-related hazards. Participants called for joint measures to reduce risk, such...

Experts and officials from Nepal and China met in Kathmandu three months before a wall made of water, rock and mud hurled down the Himalayan valley that borders Nepal and China and killed hundreds. The agenda for the meeting, held in the capital of Nepal on May 27, included 10 Nepali officials and 12 Chinese officials, including those from the Tibet region, where the disaster occurred. They discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries to monitor and respond effectively to hazards such as floods, bad weather, and glacier-related hazards. Participants called for joint measures to reduce risk, such...

Authorities said that the chances of finding survivors among the thousands who are still missing in Nepal have dwindled. This is a week after flash floods in the Himalayas caused the destruction in the mountainous nation. Nearly 4,000 people are still unaccounted for. Officials fear that many of them may be buried beneath the debris from the floods which ravaged towns and valleys close to the Chinese border. China's official death toll in Tibet has remained at 16 since Sunday, with 546 still missing. Phanindra paudel, a senior government official from the National Emergency Operation Center(NEOC), stated that "the hope...

Authorities said that the death toll from the catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet last week reached 750 people on Sunday, with another 3,044 still missing. Rescuers were forced to move to higher ground when rains swollen river levels. Rescue operations have been suspended a few times since Friday because of the bad weather. There are also concerns that a mudslide caused by Wednesday's collapsed glacier could cause fresh flooding in Nepal after a lake formed across a border between Nepal and China. According to Red Cross, more than 90 000 people may have been affected by this disaster. China...

China said on Sunday that 261 foreigners from 23 different countries were missing on the Tibetan border with Nepal after a mudslide which ripped through the Himalayan area. The death toll for Tibet is now 16 people. At a press briefing, officials from China's Tibet Autonomous Region stated that the largest number of foreigners missing was from Nepal, with 104. Also unaccounted for were 49 Indians, 33 Latvians, 18 Americans and 15 British nationals. Beijing authorities have informed foreign missions, they said. This was the first nationality breakdown from the Chinese since Wednesday's collapse of a ice sheet?released a torrent...

Chinese authorities reported on Saturday that the threat of a large lake forming after a 'glacier collapse' near the border between China and Nepal, where a deadly flood occurred earlier this week, has diminished. Satellite images taken from Thursday morning to Saturday morning show that the water flowing through the lake, which straddles the China-Nepal boundary at the confluence two rivers, has been decreasing the reservoir slowly, according to state broadcaster CCTV, citing the Water Resources Ministry. Satellite images of the lake surface at Purepu Tsangpo River showed that it was around the size 14 football fields combined on Saturday...

Nepal is in need of foreign assistance in areas such as search and rescue and specialised technical fields, which are not its expertise, following the devastating flood that struck its Himalayan border area with China last week. The collapse of a glacier on Wednesday released a torrent of rocks, ice, debris and mud into the Himalayan river systems. Nearly 600 people were killed in Nepal, China, Tibet, while more than 2,000 are still missing. Shisir khanal stated that Kathmandu needed foreign assistance in areas like rescuing people trapped in tunnels, opening communication and transport services where bridges were destroyed, identifying?dead...

In an interview, the lead author of the study called the widespread belief that Robusta coffee was more resistant to climate change than other varieties an "internet myth" that was based on flawed studies that ignored the crop's vulnerability and its inability to tolerate drought. Robusta coffee is often viewed as a cheap filler when compared to arabica beans. However, each year, millions of bags are shipped worldwide, with the majority coming from Brazil and Vietnam. The findings published in the Wiley journal Sustainable Development late Thursday are a challenge to those who advocate robusta as an alternative way of...

An official with Nepal's Disaster?Management Authority confirmed that Nepal monitors two lakes a few miles upstream from the flood zone, where hundreds of people died on Wednesday. The official said that flood risks would continue until both lakes are completely drained. One of the lakes started overflowing Friday. Satellite images showed two lakes near the site of a glacier slide that pushed debris, rock, ice and mud into rivers on Wednesday. This caused flood waves which destroyed houses and destroyed bridges. A Chinese rescue team captured aerial footage of the formation of 'one of the two Lakes on Thursday. On...

The 'Red Cross' said that more than 90,000 people are directly affected by the Himalayan land slide and urgently need humanitarian assistance. Officials from the aid sector expressed their fears about further flooding. David Fisher, the head of the delegation of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for Nepal, said at a Geneva press briefing: "We think that 93,000 people are affected, and they're in a lot of need." He added, "We are of course concerned about the second flood." Fisher stated that the organisation's trucks containing relief supplies had been?blocked by a lake? formed by the...

Both Nepal and China?warned Thursday of new risks of flooding in Himalayas as two lakes have formed on either side of the border, which threaten to?burst into a region that is still coping with this week's devastating?flood. Nearly 1,000 people are still missing, and search and rescue operations continue in the debris-strewn hillsides and valleys. The flood that struck Nepal's border region with China's Tibet on Wednesday killed at least 362. Both countries blame the flood on glacier collapses that sent rock, ice and debris into mountain river systems. Nepal's disaster agency issued a warning on Thursday that a lake...

Both Nepal and China warned of new 'risks of floods in the Himalayas on Thursday, as two lakes that have formed on either side their border are threatening to 'burst. This is a region still coping with last week’s devastating?flood. Nearly 1,000 people are still missing, and search and rescue operations continue in the debris-strewn hillsides and valleys. The flood that struck Nepal's border region with China's Tibet on Wednesday killed at least 362. Both countries blame the flood on the collapse of a glacier that sent rock, ice and debris into mountain river systems. Nepal's disaster authority issued a...

Nepal has begun receiving 'cash','relief supplies and other aid from countries and organizations around the world as it responds to a flash flood which killed over 160 people and left many more missing. Here is the list of all aid and assistance that has been announced, as well as delivered: China has coordinated emergency supplies as well as?cash aid to Nepal. China's ambassador to Nepal stated this in a post on the social media website X. EUROPEAN UNION : European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that the EU was ready to "mobilise additional European assistance". India's...

Authorities warned of heavy casualties as they urged people living along river banks to move higher ground. Government officials have said that the areas of Syapru Besi, Timure, and the mountainous district Rasuwa are severely affected. They also called for residents to be extra vigilant along the Bhote-Koshi River. District administrator Narendra Pariyar said that he had received reports of villages and infrastructure projects being washed out, but that a number of deaths or damage to property were not immediately known. He said, "There could have been a lot of casualties or property loss." "But I can't say for certain?now."...