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Nepal's
Nature - Climate Change
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Nepal Himalayas Glaciers |
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Nepal Information |
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Glacial Lakes Outburst Flood (GLOF): Mountain communities fear melting glaciers,
flooding
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Global warming created this lake out of glacier, say local residents
| Pemba
Sherpa looks fearfully at the huge Imjha glacier lake which lies at an
altitude of nearly 6,000 metres above sea level in the Everest region of
eastern Nepal.
"There
were glaciers all around here. They have melted very fast over the past
few decades and formed this lake which has grown dangerously fast, something
I witnessed as I was growing up," Pemba told IRIN, adding that he was concerned
about what would happen if the lake grew out of control. |
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His
house in Chukung village is only a few kilometres from the rapidly growing
lake.
In
the past few decades, there have been several incidents of glacial lakes
bursting, flooding villages, causing landslides, killing people and destroying
farms and houses, said Pemba.
Only
27 years ago Imjha Tse Valley was filled with glaciers but due to a rise
in temperature, they have melted at an average rate of 10 metres a year
and formed a huge lake containing 28 million cubic metres of water. The
lake is 100m deep, 500m wide and 2km long, according to World Wildlife
Fund for Nature Conservation Nepal (WWF-Nepal), which has been advocating
action to combat global warming at both the national and international
level.
"The
lake is absolute proof of the dangerous impact of global warming in this
world, and the worst consequence is in the Himalayan region," WWF-Nepal's
climate change officer, Sandeep Chamling Rai, told IRIN.
The
issue of global warming is taken seriously in the Everest region, where
there is a high incidence of melting of glaciers, frequent avalanches,
floods and landslides, local Sherpa villagers said.
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Fear
of flooding |
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Out burst of Sabai Tsho, Inkhu Valley, Khumbu (1998)
| "I
lost my grandchild and daughter to a huge landslide," 80-year old Dorje
Sherpa said in the remote Dingboche village, lying at an altitude of nearly
5,000m. Nearly 14 years ago, they were crushed by a huge landslide caused
by flooding from a glacial lake in nearby Amadablam mountain.
"I
watched helplessly as the landslide destroyed the house they were sleeping
in," he said. The landslide killed about six people that night. |
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'The
lake is absolute proof of the dangerous impact of global warming in this
world, and the worst consequence is in the Himalayan region.''
Dorje
is not the only villager who suffered. In another village called Ghat,
floods in 1985 also affected local residents. "My house is still under
that debris," said 85-year old Monk Nawa Jigtar.
In
that year, Dig Tsho Lake burst out of its moraine walls (stone and mud
walls holding the water back) and the flood rushed 90km from Langmoche
valley to Ghat.
The
monk, who witnessed the disaster, told how the floods destroyed bridges
and main trails, and left in its wake a gorge instead of a settlement.
The
villagers managed to rebuild their houses with the help of WWF-Nepal and
the government's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
(DNPWC), but they still fear there could be a worse disaster were Lake
Imjha to burst its banks.
"We
were lucky the flood was during the day. A lot of people could have died
if it had happened at night," said 32-year-old Ang Maya Sherpa, who was
just a teenager when she witnessed the flood in her Thamo village, which
is a two-day trek from Ghat.
Ang
Maya and other villagers did not sleep that night as the flood lasted several
hours. They all watched as their livestock were swept away by the raging
waters. The flood cut off main roads, trapping villagers for over 20 days
before they could make their way to safe areas.
Memories
of
the floods are still fresh for many Sherpa villagers, and the hills still
bear the scars. A few hours' trek between Thamo and Thame there was evidence
all around of how the floodwaters had forced their way through the hills.
"Even
today, we are scared of crossing bridges built over the 'angry' waters.
We don't know when there will be a sudden flood again," said 21-year old
Tenzing Sherpa, a professional guide and son of one of the five famous
'Sherpa Tigers' who accompanied and helped Sir Edmund Hillary during the
first ever conquest of Everest's summit.
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Twenty
lakes at risk |
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Tenzing
was 12 years old when he started work as a tourist guide, travelling frequently
to the base camps of Everest, Amadablam, Nuptse and Lhotse. "My generation
has gradually started to understand that the natural disasters are not
the Nepali people's fault; rather, it is the West which is responsible
for global warming," he said.
According
to DPNWF and WWF-Nepal, over 20 glacial lakes are at risk of bursting out
of moraine dams. Of Nepal's 3,000 glacial lakes, over 2,000 have gradually
melted and contain lakes, but up to now there has been little study of
this phenomenon, say experts.
"We're
living in a very dangerous era where the increase in global warming is
affecting us all," an expert mountain climber, Nima Tasi Sherpa, told IRIN,
adding that he had observed the decline of glaciers in the past 20 years
on the mountain peaks he had climbed.
"When
I first worked as a mountain guide in 1988, there was snow and ice all
the way from Camp 2. Now you would see more rock in the Nuptse and Lhotse
glacier areas. In Spring, you do not see much snow," said Nima Tasi, who
has climbed Mount Everest eight times and has been working as a mountain
climbing guide for over 25 years.
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Climate
change |
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''My
generation has gradually started to understand that the natural disasters
are not the Nepali people's fault; rather, it is the West which is responsible
for global warming.''
Climate
change experts are concerned that glaciers formed by over two million years
of snowfall are now receding faster in the Himalayas than anywhere else
in the world.
According
to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -established by
the World Meteorological organisation (WMO) and the UN Environmental Program
(UNEP) to assess scientific and socio-economic information related to climate
change - the years between 1995 and 2006 rank among the 12 warmest years
since 1850. Scientists have warned that over the last 100 years the earth
has warmed 0.74 degrees.
"We
have to act now to reduce global warming, as nobody anywhere in the world
will be spared from its impact," said Nima Tasi.
| Source:IRIN |
Source: 2007
Copyright
© UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2007
[
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). |
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