Katmandu: Floods triggered by torrential rains in Nepal on Tuesday tore down a Himalayan mountain valley, sweeping away 18 people and destroying a key border bridge with China, a government official said.
One person has been confirmed dead and 17 others are listed as missing in the floods on the Bhotekoshi river, said Arjun Paudel, chief district officer of Rasuwa district.
The wall of water that hit Tuesday morning also swept away one of the main bridges linking Nepal and China.
Eleven Nepalis and six Chinese people are among the missing, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said.
Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.
The Katmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) warned in June that communities face heightened disaster risks this monsoon season.
“Rising temperatures and more extreme rain raise the risk of water-induced disasters such as floods, landslides, and debris flows,” ICIMOD said.
One dead, 17 missing as Nepal flood destroys China border bridge
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One dead, 17 missing as Nepal flood destroys China border bridge
- The wall of water that hit Tuesday morning also swept away one of the main bridges linking Nepal and China
- Eleven Nepalis and six Chinese people are among the missing
India to provide $450 million to cyclone-ravaged Sri Lanka
COLOMBO: India has committed $450 million in humanitarian assistance to help Sri Lanka recover from the devastating damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Tuesday on a visit to the country.
The cyclone killed more than 640 people when it swept across the South Asian island last month, causing floods and landslides that inflicted about $4 billion in damage, according to the World Bank, or 4 percent of the country’s GDP.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has described the storm, which affected more than two million people, as the most challenging natural disaster in the island’s history.
Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit, told a media briefing in Colombo he had handed a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dissanayake, committing to a “reconstruction package of $450 million.”
While $350 million will take the form of “concessional lines of credit,” the remaining $100 million will be given as grants.
Jaishankar also noted the 1,100 tons of relief material, along with medicine and other necessary equipment, sent to India’s southern neighbor in the cyclone’s immediate aftermath.
“Given the scale of damage, restoring connectivity was clearly an immediate priority,” he said, detailing the Indian military’s assistance in providing portable bridges.
Jaishankar said India would also look at other ways to mitigate the losses, including encouraging Indian tourism to Sri Lanka.
“Similarly, an increase in foreign direct investment from India can boost your economy at a critical time,” he added.
The cyclone struck as Sri Lanka was emerging from its worst-ever economic meltdown in 2022, when it ran out of foreign exchange reserves to pay for essential imports such as food, fuel and medicines.
Following a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund approved in early 2023, the country’s economy has stabilized.
str-abh/cwl
