Nepal and China both warned on Thursday of fresh risks of flooding in the Himalayas as two lakes that have developed on either side of their border threaten to burst in a region still grappling with this week’s catastrophic flood.
Search and rescue operations are still underway in the debris-strewn valleys and hillsides, with nearly 1,000 people still missing after Wednesday’s flood struck the border regions of Nepal and China’s Tibet, killing at least 362 people.
Both countries have blamed the flood on a glacier collapse that pushed rock, ice, mud and debris into river systems in the mountains.
Nepal’s disaster authority issued a notice on Thursday warning that a lake formed by debris blocking a river at the flood site is rising and at risk of bursting.
“Residents of the lower banks… passengers, rescuers engaged in rescue operations, and all concerned are requested to exercise special caution and stay in safe places away from the river banks and risky areas,” the authority said.
China warned that 3 million cubic metres of water — the equivalent of about 1,200 Olympic swimming pools — are expected to flow into an already dammed lake on its side of the border over the next three days, creating a high risk of a breach, with peak flow expected around September 1.
