Thame, a small Sherpa village in the Everest region of Nepal, is located at an elevation of about 3,800 meters (12,467 feet).
It is home to many record-holding Sherpa mountaineers, including Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first person to climb Mount Everest, along with explorer Edmund Hillary.
But on August 16, the village was flooded with freezing water after a glacial lake burst its banks, leaving some 60 people homeless and destroying more than a dozen homes and hotels, plus a school and a health center.
The incident has left many villagers – about 300 people – wondering whether it is still safe to live there.
‘We are still in shock’
There were no deaths or injuries, but members of the Sherpa community said they were lucky the flooding occurred during the day, when everyone was awake and warnings came in quickly.
“If this had happened at night, between 200 and 300 people would have died,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, former chairman of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
“We are still in shock and we still cry when we (villagers) talk to each other,” said Yangji Doma Sherpa, a resident of Thame who was born in the village.
“The bigger question is whether this place is safe enough to live in now. This flood has shown that we are now dealing with an even more dangerous situation, and that is why people do not feel safe.”
Other villagers living lower in the mountains have also been affected.
“The flooding swept away some parts of our village… luckily we were able to run up the hill,” said Pasang Sherpa in Tok Tok village, nearly two days downhill from Thame.
“The normally milky and foamy river turned dark brown, with boulders and debris swept along.
The sound and the sight were so scary that I am still in shock. I have taken refuge in a nearby village and am considering whether I should ever go back to Tok Tok.”
According to local people, the risk could be significantly reduced if there were proper control mechanisms for glacial lakes upstream of human settlements.
While a few lakes have caught the attention of scientists and authorities, the rest are simply ignored.
Meanwhile, in many villages there is no disaster management.
“A few villages downstream from the Imja Glacier Lake have been trained on how to run in case of a flood,” said Ms. Doma Sherpa.
“But there has been no training at all in our village.”
Of the more than a dozen glacial lake outbursts recorded in Nepal over the past 50 years, four occurred in Everest’s Dudhkosi River Basin.
One occurred upstream of Thame in 1985, when a large avalanche crashed into the Dig Tsho Glacier Lagoon, creating a wave that overtopped the dam. The ensuing flood destroyed a hydroelectric power station downstream and caused more than $3 million in damage.
Small lakes, big risks
The lack of supervision is not a problem unique to Thame.
There are thousands of glaciers and glacial lakes in the Himalayas, but only a few in the Everest region are monitored and have early warning systems for flooding.
Meanwhile, global warming is causing glaciers to melt faster, potentially filling lakes to bursting point.
A 2021 study led by the University of Leeds found that Himalayan glaciers have been losing ice ten times faster in recent decades than the average since they expanded 400 to 700 years ago.
Another study, published in 2022 in the journal Nature, found that Mount Everest’s South Col Glacier may have lost half its mass since the 1990s due to warming.
Lake Imja, at the foot of Mount Everest, was drained in 2016 after officials determined the lake was at risk of overflowing, inundating settlements, hiking trails and bridges downstream.
Scientists have discovered that many new lakes have formed in recent years, while others have expanded and merged into larger lakes.
The risk is further increased by the fact that glaciers are eroding the local landscape and causing the water to retreat rapidly, which can lead to more landslides and avalanches that can flow into the lakes and cause them to rupture.
About two dozen glacial lakes in the Nepalese Himalayas have been designated as dangerous, according to authorities. The two lakes that erupted on August 16, however, are not on that list and are not being monitored by officials.
“They were the smallest and no one cared about them, and yet the damage was so enormous,” said Mr Tshering Sherpa.
“Imagine what could happen if the big ones erupt. There are many of them in the Everest region.”
Officials from Nepal’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) conducted a helicopter inspection and found that there were a total of five small glacial lakes near the source of the flood. One of them was partially cracked, another was completely cracked.
“This means that the three other lakes at the same location could erupt in the same way at any time,” said Ms Doma Sherpa.
“Now that people know this, they no longer feel safe. We are especially concerned about the elderly because of their mobility problems.”
‘Closed off from the outside world’
Since then, the effects of global warming on the Himalayan glaciers and lakes have only increased, with locals saying that some of the flood damage is now irreparable.
While the Thame River used to flow through the left part of the Khumbu Valley, Friday’s flooding has changed the course of the river, now flowing right through the village and taking up almost half of the land.
“Much of the remaining land is now full of rubble and boulders,” said Ms. Doma Sherpa.
“This is not the same as rebuilding the houses that were destroyed by the earthquake. If you have no land left, what can you build on?”
The flooding also damaged the reservoir of the only hydroelectric power plant that supplies the region with electricity.
The station ceased operation after the disaster led to mud and debris deposits in the reservoir.
“As a result, the power supply was cut off and therefore the telecommunication systems were also not functioning,” said Mingma Sherpa, chairman of a youth club in Namche, a major tourist attraction near Thame.
“Since the disaster, the area has been cut off from the outside world. That is quite scary.”
“We were concerned about the slow effects of climate change, such as diminishing water supplies, but this disaster has shown how unsafe and vulnerable we are.”
Government officials are aware of the fears of local people.
Anil Pokhrel, head of NDRRMA, said the authority is now forming a team of experts that will “study the risks posed by the three remaining lakes upstream of Thame village and find out whether the settlement areas downstream are safe for people to live in or not”.
“We are also working to reduce disaster risk in the region,” she added.
However, members of local Sherpa communities say there has been more talk and less action in recent years when it comes to dealing with the risks posed by glacial lake outbursts.
“We hear all the big plans, especially at conferences, and soon the plans are forgotten,” said Ms. Doma Sherpa.
“But we must not forget what this flood has done – and that there are other lakes above it that could bring disaster upon us at any moment.”
