A Sherpa village in Nepal’s Everest region has been submerged in icy floodwaters, officials say.
Experts suspect Thame – which sits at an altitude of around 3,800m – was flooded after a glacial lake burst its banks. Scientists have warned that climate change is causing many Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.
There were no reports of deaths or injuries, but more than a dozen buildings including homes, schools and clinics were completely destroyed after Friday’s flooding.
Thame is home to many record-breaking Sherpa climbers and is also the birthplace of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first person to climb Mount Everest with explorer Edmund Hillary.
Videos show white foaming water pouring through the village in the floods, turned brown by mud and debris.
Nepal army spokesman Gaurav Kumar KC told AFP that about 15 houses had been washed away, while rescue teams were taking people to safety.
Local authorities said bad weather prevented the use of helicopters during the investigation and they planned to fly up the mountain on Saturday morning.
While the cause of the flood is still unknown, Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a climate change expert at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said there were “indications” that it was the result of a glacial lake outburst and they were working to confirm this.
Scientists have warned that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting due to climate change and creating glacial lakes, often blocked by loose rocks and debris, making them unstable and prone to bursting their banks.
Hundreds of glacial lakes, formed from melting ice, have appeared out of nowhere in the Himalayas in recent decades. According to a 2020 ICIMOD report, 2,070 glacial lakes have been recorded in Nepal, of which 21 are classified as “potentially hazardous.”
