KATHMANDU, Sept 7: Greenpeace South Asia has described the Bhotekoshi flood and mudslide in Rasuwa as a humanitarian disaster and warned that worsening climate change is increasing the risks faced by communities in the Himalayas.
Expressing solidarity with those affected by the disaster, Greenpeace said its immediate priority was to save lives, locate missing people and ensure affected communities receive safe shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and other essential supplies.
Hundreds of people remain missing and numerous homes have been destroyed in the disaster, according to the organisation. It said rescue teams, local communities and authorities were working under difficult conditions, with damaged roads and bridges and disrupted electricity supplies making it difficult to reach affected areas and deliver assistance.
Greenpeace called for all available resources to be mobilised for emergency response and recovery, with particular attention to vulnerable communities whose homes, livelihoods and access to essential services have been disrupted.
Nepal advocates for humanitarian efforts, global solidarity: NA...
The organisation also warned that the impact of the disaster could extend beyond Nepal’s borders, noting that communities downstream, including in India’s Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, face flood risks because of their proximity to rivers originating in Nepal.
Greenpeace said it was too early to determine the precise role of global warming in the particular flood. It cited preliminary investigations pointing to a collapsed glacier as the cause of the disaster, while arguing that broader climate trends are increasing the risk of extreme events in the Himalayas.
According to Greenpeace, rising temperatures are rapidly transforming the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with glaciers shrinking, snow and ice melting, permafrost thawing and mountain slopes becoming increasingly unstable.
Citing projections for the extended Hindu Kush Himalaya region, the organisation said more than one-third of glacier ice volume could be lost this century even if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Greenpeace argued that communities that have contributed least to global emissions are bearing some of the greatest human and financial costs of climate-related disasters.
The organisation called on governments to go beyond emergency relief and invest in disaster preparedness and climate resilience while accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy and electrification.
It also called for major fossil-fuel companies to contribute towards the costs of climate-related damage, arguing that those responsible for a significant share of emissions should bear greater responsibility for the consequences of the climate crisis.
