Experts confirm glacial lake outburst devastated village in Everest region in Nepal

Although no deaths have been reported so far, one person is reportedly missing.

Kathmandu: Army officials, civic authorities and scientists on Saturday confirmed that the massive flash floods in a high-altitude village in the Everest region of Nepal were caused by two glacial lake outbursts leading to widespread devastation.

Hurtling down the steep slopes, carrying boulders, debris and muck with it, the floods devastated more than half of the homes in Thame village in the scenic Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-5. The incident occurred at around 1.30 pm local time on Friday.

Although no deaths have been reported so far, one person is missing, news portal MyRepublica said about the damage caused due to the flooded Thame rivulet, one of the tributaries of Dudhkoshi River.

“Authorities reported that around 93 villagers who fled to higher altitudes or were rescued are now being sheltered in an army camp, while 42 others have been temporarily placed in a nearby community building,” The Himalayan Times newspaper reported.

A team of experts and authorities were dispatched in a helicopter to inspect and monitor the disaster site and investigate the cause of the sudden flood and mudslide that struck the village. The helicopter went right upstream up to the glacial lakes in higher reaches.

“Following the aerial inspection, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality confirms that the flood was triggered by the outburst of a glacial lake, one of the many lakes situated above the valley,” The Himalayan Times said.

The Kathmandu Post quoted officials to report that two of the five lakes formed above the Thame village had burst and flooded downstream areas.

Glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOF, are a sudden release of water from a lake fed by glacier melt that has formed at the side, in front, within, beneath, or on the surface of a glacier. Experts have warned that global warming poses major threats to glacial lakes and subsequent GLOFs in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region.

Corroborating that it was indeed a GLOF, the Cryosphere Society of Nepal (CSN), a group of Nepal-based glaciologists working in the Himalayas, said in a post on X: “The lake, which is approximately 39,081.87 square meters in size and located upstream of Thame Village in Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, caused the devastation in Thame Village on August 16th. It is located on the way to Tashi Lapcha Pass from Thame.” Although no lives were lost, about 50 per cent of the Thame village has been severely damaged, and the remaining houses are uninhabitable.

Thame lies 16 km from Namche Bazaar, which serves as the entry to the Everest region. Located at about 12,500 feet above sea level in the Khumbu Valley, it is famous as the birthplace of legendary Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who along with New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary was the first to summit Mount Everest, the highest in the world, in May 1953.

It is also home to famous record-breaking Everest climbers including Apa Sherpa, Kami Rita Sherpa, and Lakpa Rita Sherpa, among others.

An almost 11-minute video made from the helicopter that went for the inspection and posted by the municipality on its Facebook page not just showed the higher reaches upstream of the Thame village, the burst glacial lake, its breached moraine and other lakes amid the vertically rising Himalayan ranges but also the devastation wrought by the floods.

The footage from the higher reaches also showed significant sediment flow, possibly due to melting of the snow upstream, which the experts said, “resulted in landslides and an overwhelming surge of water that the local rivers could not contain.” The muck and debris flood raised the level of the river floodplains, eroded large swathes of the village land abutting the river and left its horrendous mark on the houses washed away fully or in part, and also those that were covered till its roof levels. Large-scale agriculture land was either swept away due to erosion or covered with boulders and debris, the video also showed.

The Himalayan Times quoted police as saying that a school, a health clinic, and 20 houses and hotels were swept away by the disaster.

“Although the water level in the Thame River has decreased, it continues to pose a threat to settlements along its banks in the Khumbu and lower Solu areas,” it said and added that the local power project's powerhouse was completely damaged.

Almost 200 meters of the trekking route from Phakding to Namche, specifically in the Jame area, was washed away, however, due to the off-season for tourism, there were very few people in the village and hardly any tourists.

The flood also hindered movement to areas above Namche in Solukhumbu, cutting off access to the Everest region.

Meanwhile, Minister for Defence ManBir Rai, along with federal and provincial assembly members, rural municipality chairs, and the Chief District Officer of Solukhumbu, reached Thame village for an on-site inspection of the flood-affected areas.