Gyirong : One of the most haunting reminders of the August 26 flash floods that devastated the Tibet-Nepal border is a video showing a massive wall of mud, rocks and debris engulfing a well-built immigration post in seconds.
The dramatic footage, which went viral worldwide, offered a chilling glimpse of nature’s fury and the devastating impact it can have on buildings and human lives.
Until now, the full extent of the destruction had largely been seen from the Nepalese side of the border. In Nepal, the death toll has crossed 1,300, while around 5,000 remain missing.
The disaster was triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, sending a massive surge of water and debris downstream through the Bhotekoshi River and devastating settlements in northern and central Nepal.
China on Sunday, for the first time, opened up its devastated Gyirong County in Tibet – the site of the destroyed border immigration post – to PTI and select foreign media to show the destruction caused by the flash floods and the massive relief and reconstruction work underway.
China has been working to reconstruct roads to restore access to the cut-off border post and has sent relief materials to Nepal.
According to officials’ figures on the Chinese side, 31 people were killed and 531 others remain missing in Tibet. These include 261 missing foreigners, including 49 from India and 22 from other countries.
Most of the dead and missing foreigners were unlucky enough to be on both sides of the ill-fated immigration building when it was devoured by the floods.
China said, together with Nepal, it was officially determined that the August 26 disaster was caused by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepal.
“We noted that experts and official institutions of China and Nepal have made a preliminary assessment of the cause of the disaster,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing in Beijing on August 28.
“According to their analysis, the disaster has been triggered by a collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepal,” he said.
The glacier collapse without any warning adds a new dimension, as experts warn that it may be one of many to come.
A Chinese climate official warned that glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are likely to become more unstable, which may lead to more collapses and cascading disasters similar to the August 26 flash floods.
“Over the past 60 years, the glacier area on the Tibetan Plateau has shrunk by around 24 per cent, with around 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely,” said Gao Rong, deputy director of China’s National Climate Centre, an official body of the Chinese government.
“Looking ahead, the structural stability of glaciers across the Tibetan Plateau will decline further. Glacial disasters are likely to become more frequent and could amplify in destruction and reach through cascading effects,” Gao said.
The Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, another official body, said in its report on the August 26 disaster that the mudslide created by the glacier collapse travelled 22 km along the valley and reached Gyirong Port at the Tibet border crossing in just seven minutes.
Scientists stress that hazard evaluations can no longer rely solely on measuring initial collapses.
After analysing satellite and field data from Gyirong County, researchers found that collapsing ice and rock swept down the 22-km valley, scouring the riverbed, dragging bank debris with it, and mixing with water, turning a high-elevation collapse into a devastating mudslide.
The Chinese researchers suggested that disaster-risk assessments should take into account the cascading hazards associated with the high-mountain cryosphere.
For China and its neighbours, disasters flowing from Tibet, where Beijing is building massive hydropower projects that could cause devastation on a massive scale, could be a constant source of concern.
