Deadly Nepal flood prompts debate over hydro projects and climate‑linked mountain risks

On August 26 a glacier and underlying rock collapsed in Nepal’s Trishuli River valley, sending a fast‑moving avalanche‑flood that destroyed bridges, a multistory border building and buried twelve hydropower plants. Authorities have recovered about 1,400 bodies and still list over 5,000 people as missing; the Nepali army says 121 workers are trapped inside the power stations, of whom only three have been rescued. Experts note that the 2015 magnitude‑7.8 earthquake likely weakened the slope, while a World Weather Attribution analysis suggests that rising regional temperatures, glacier thinning and permafrost degradation may have heightened the risk of such a failure. The disaster has sparked a debate over the safety of densely sited hydro projects in a seismically active, climate‑stressed Himalaya, with calls for reassessment of environmental impact reviews and monitoring practices.