A landslide on the Nepal-China border has created a lake that has begun to overflow, raising the risk of repeated flash floods in the flood-ravaged region, and rescue efforts have been temporarily suspended, Reuters reports.
Residents of the Rasuwa district in Nepal, on the border with China’s Tibet, rushed to higher ground to escape the devastation caused by rising water levels.
The threat of a landslide dam collapse has forced the Chinese side to suspend all work and move personnel and equipment to safer places.
The total death toll in the floods caused by the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal side has risen to 469, with nearly 1,000 people missing there and in Tibet. A massive wave of rocks, ice and sediment has swept through Himalayan river systems after a glacier broke off. The floods have swept through villages and valleys, destroying power plants, roads and bridges on the route that connects Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with tourists and pilgrims. At least 540 foreigners are among the missing.
The rock mass has blocked the river in its path, creating a lake that could bring another wave of flooding to already struggling communities downstream. China has mobilized a team of eight engineers to conduct aerial observations and 3D modeling of the lake.
By Friday morning, the volume of the lake had exceeded 2.5 million cubic meters of water.
Downstream, in Nepal, authorities have received a warning that a glacial lake has begun to overflow. Rasuwa official Narendra Pariyar said he could see the water level rising in the river.
Nepalese rescue teams have used helicopters to search for survivors and drop essential supplies to thousands of people stranded in towns and valleys. Other rescuers have found dozens of bodies scattered across a wide area.
While offers of help from other countries continue to pour in, Nepal has said it does not currently need help with search and rescue missions. A foreign ministry spokesman said on the 28th of August that the offer of help was a natural reaction, but that foreign involvement was not needed at this time.
Chinese rescuers had not yet reached the Gyirong border crossing, the worst-hit region on its side of the border, by the evening of the 27th of August, and rescue teams were continuing to clear roads. 558 people are missing in the Gyirong area, 260 of them foreigners. So far, only three deaths have been officially confirmed on the Chinese side.
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