Lessons Nepal Must Learn from the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli Floods

On September 25th, a devastating flood swept through the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli rivers, spreading damage widely across the region. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the flood exhibited a high density coupled with an extremely rapid flow. Sanjiv Baral, the Executive Director of the Hydrology and Water Resources Research Center, noted that the water flow reached an extraordinary speed of 188 kilometers per hour. Some have described this event as a “Himalayan tsunami,” while others interpret it as a flood of the kind that occurs only once every 1,000 years. But what exactly was this flood? Was it a result of climate change? What lessons can we draw for the future? These are some of the questions we posed to Baral.