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Nepal PM Calls Bhotekoshi Flood a 'Serious Signal' of Climate Risk

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Nepal PM Balendra Shah told Parliament the August 26 Bhotekoshi flood, which killed 1,127, shows rising Himalayan climate risk and needs global action.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday told Parliament that the Bhotekoshi River flood of August 26 was a stark warning of mounting climate danger across the Himalayan region, and he pressed the international community to share the burden of confronting it.

Shah said experts had traced the flood to an avalanche of snow and rock high in the mountains, ranking it among the largest disasters the region has seen. The death toll now stands at 1,127 bodies recovered, with 3,916 people still unaccounted for, according to figures presented by Nepali Police.

The flood tore through riverside communities in Rasuwa district on the morning of August 26 and quickly spread to the neighbouring areas of Nuwakot and Dhading. Rescue teams have pulled 11,993 people to safety. Hospitals admitted 292 injured, and 182 of them have already been sent home, ANI reported.

"This is a serious signal that, alongside climate change, the risks we must bear in the Himalayan region are increasing," Shah said. He argued that Nepal must make a strong case to the world about the disasters it endures because of a warming planet.

Shah framed the crisis as a collective one. "Climate change is a product of the whole world's contribution; mitigating and managing its effects is the shared responsibility of the global community," he said, calling for international cooperation to deal with the fallout.

Power and roads knocked out

The flood inflicted heavy damage on the country's infrastructure. Eight working hydropower plants with a combined 281 MW of capacity were hit, along with four plants still under construction that would have added 388 MW. In total, 431.1 MW of generation capacity was knocked offline.

Major stretches of the Galchhi-Betrawati-Rasuwagadhi road and the Prithvi Highway were destroyed or badly damaged. The disaster also wrecked 48 suspension bridges and 31 motorable bridges.

Search operations for the missing are continuing. The scale of the loss has drawn fresh attention to how exposed Himalayan settlements and their infrastructure remain to increasingly severe, climate-driven hazards.

Bhotekoshi flood, Nepal flood, Balendra Shah, Himalayan climate risk, Rasuwa district, Nepal hydropower damage, climate change Nepal, Prithvi Highway damage

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