Latest news with #NationalDisasterRiskReduction
Malay Mail
01-08-2025
- Climate
- Malay Mail
AI-powered warning system brings hope to Nepal's landslide-hit villages
KATHMANDU, Aug 2 — Every morning, Nepali primary school teacher Bina Tamang steps outside her home and checks the rain gauge, part of an early warning system in one of the world's most landslide-prone regions. Tamang contributes to an AI-powered early warning system that uses rainfall and ground movement data, local observations and satellite imagery to predict landslides up to weeks in advance, according to its developers at the University of Melbourne. From her home in Kimtang village in the hills of northwest Nepal, 29-year-old Tamang sends photos of the water level to experts in the capital Kathmandu, a five-hour drive to the south. 'Our village is located in difficult terrain, and landslides are frequent here, like many villages in Nepal,' Tamang told AFP. Every year during the monsoon season, floods and landslides wreak havoc across South Asia, killing hundreds of people. Nepal is especially vulnerable due to unstable geology, shifting rainfall patterns and poorly planned development. As a mountainous country, it is already 'highly prone' to landslides, said Rajendra Sharma, an early warning expert at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. 'And climate change is fuelling them further. Shifting rainfall patterns, rain instead of snowfall in high altitudes and even increase in wildfires are triggering soil erosion,' Sharma told AFP. Saving lives Landslides killed more than 300 people last year and were responsible for 70 percent of monsoon-linked deaths, government data shows. Tamang knows the risks first hand. When she was just five years old, her family and dozens of others relocated after soil erosion threatened their village homes. They moved about a kilometre (0.6 miles) uphill, but a strong 2015 earthquake left the area even more unstable, prompting many families to flee again. 'The villagers here have lived in fear,' Tamang said. 'But I am hopeful that this new early warning system will help save lives.' The landslide forecasting platform was developed by Australian professor Antoinette Tordesillas with partners in Nepal, Britain and Italy. Its name, SAFE-RISCCS, is an acronym of a complex title—Spatiotemporal Analytics, Forecasting and Estimation of Risks from Climate Change Systems. 'This is a low-cost but high-impact solution, one that's both scientifically informed and locally owned,' Tordesillas told AFP. Professor Basanta Adhikari from Nepal's Tribhuvan University, who is involved in the project, said that similar systems were already in use in several other countries, including the United States and China. 'We are monitoring landslide-prone areas using the same principles that have been applied abroad, adapted to Nepal's terrain,' he told AFP. 'If the system performs well during this monsoon season, we can be confident that it will work in Nepal as well, despite the country's complex Himalayan terrain.' In Nepal, it is being piloted in two high-risk areas: Kimtang in Nuwakot district and Jyotinagar in Dhading district. Early warnings Tamang's data is handled by technical advisers like Sanjaya Devkota, who compares it against a threshold that might indicate a landslide. 'We are still in a preliminary stage, but once we have a long dataset, the AI component will automatically generate a graphical view and alert us based on the rainfall forecast,' Devkota said. 'Then we report to the community, that's our plan.' The experts have been collecting data for two months, but will need a data set spanning a year or two for proper forecasting, he added. Eventually, the system will deliver a continuously updated landslide risk map, helping decision makers and residents take preventive actions and make evacuation plans. The system 'need not be difficult or resource-intensive, especially when it builds on the community's deep local knowledge and active involvement', Tordesillas said. Asia suffered more climate and weather-related hazards than any other region in 2023, according to UN data, with floods and storms the most deadly and costly. And while two-thirds of the region have early warning systems for disasters in place, many other vulnerable countries have little coverage. In the last decade, Nepal has made progress on flood preparedness, installing 200 sirens along major rivers and actively involving communities in warning efforts. The system has helped reduce flooding deaths, said Binod Parajuli, a flood expert with the government's hydrology department. 'However, we have not been able to do the same for landslides because predicting them is much more complicated,' he said. 'Such technologies are absolutely necessary if Nepal wants to reduce its monsoon toll.' — AFP
Al Arabiya
09-07-2025
- Climate
- Al Arabiya
Rescuers Search for 19 Missing and Recover 9 Bodies After Flooding in Nepal
Dozens of rescuers searched the banks of a mountain river Wednesday looking for people missing after monsoon floods swept away Nepal's main bridge connecting the country to China and caused at least nine deaths. Police said dozens of rescuers were already at the area and more are expected to join the rescue efforts. Nine bodies have been recovered from the river. Security forces have rescued 55 people, including four Indians and a Chinese person, so far, according to the Rasuwa District Administration Office. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, along with top ministers and officials, flew to the area. Oli called an emergency meeting Tuesday night and instructed all security forces and government offices to assist the rescue and recovery efforts. The flooding on the Bhotekoshi River early Tuesday destroyed the Friendship Bridge at Rasuwagadi, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Kathmandu. Several houses and trucks that were parked at the border for customs inspections also were swept away. Hundreds of electric vehicles imported from China had been parked at the border point. The 19 missing are 13 Nepali citizens and six Chinese nationals, said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The Chinese and eight of the Nepalis were workers at a Chinese-assisted construction project on the Nepali side of the border, according to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, quoted by state media. The destruction of the bridge has halted all trade from China to Nepal through this route. The longer alternative is for goods to be shipped from China to India and then brought overland to Nepal. Monsoon rains that begin in June and end in September often cause severe flooding in Nepal, disrupting infrastructure and endangering lives.
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
Rescuers search for 19 missing and recover 9 bodies after flooding in Nepal
Dozens of rescuers searched the banks of a mountain river Wednesday looking for people missing after monsoon floods swept away Nepal's main bridge connecting to the country to China and caused at least nine deaths. Police said dozens of rescuers were already at the area and more are expected to join the rescue efforts. Nine dead bodies have been recovered from the river. Security forces have rescued 55 people, including four Indians and a Chinese person so far, according to the Rasuwa District Administration Office. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, along with top ministers and officials, flew to the area. Oli called an emergency meeting Tuesday night and instructed all security forces and government offices to assist the rescue and recovery efforts. The flooding on the Bhotekoshi River early Tuesday destroyed the Friendship Bridge at Rasuwagadi, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Kathmandu. Several houses and trucks that were parked at the border for customs inspections also were swept away. Hundreds of electric vehicles imported from China had been parked at the border point. The 19 missing are 13 Nepali citizens and six Chinese nationals, said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The Chinese and eight of the Nepalis were workers at a Chinese-assisted construction project on the Nepali side of the border, according to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, quoted by state media. The destruction of the bridge has halted all trade from China to Nepal through this route. The longer alternative is for goods to be shipped from China to India and then brought overland to Nepal. Monsoon rains that begin in June and end in September often cause severe flooding in Nepal, disrupting infrastructure and endangering lives.
Associated Press
09-07-2025
- Climate
- Associated Press
Rescuers search for 19 missing and recover 9 bodies after flooding in Nepal
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Dozens of rescuers searched the banks of a mountain river Wednesday looking for people missing after monsoon floods swept away Nepal's main bridge connecting to the country to China and caused at least nine deaths. Police said dozens of rescuers were already at the area and more are expected to join the rescue efforts. Nine dead bodies have been recovered from the river. Security forces have rescued 55 people, including four Indians and a Chinese person so far, according to the Rasuwa District Administration Office. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, along with top ministers and officials, flew to the area. Oli called an emergency meeting Tuesday night and instructed all security forces and government offices to assist the rescue and recovery efforts. The flooding on the Bhotekoshi River early Tuesday destroyed the Friendship Bridge at Rasuwagadi, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Kathmandu. Several houses and trucks that were parked at the border for customs inspections also were swept away. Hundreds of electric vehicles imported from China had been parked at the border point. The 19 missing are 13 Nepali citizens and six Chinese nationals, said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The Chinese and eight of the Nepalis were workers at a Chinese-assisted construction project on the Nepali side of the border, according to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, quoted by state media. The destruction of the bridge has halted all trade from China to Nepal through this route. The longer alternative is for goods to be shipped from China to India and then brought overland to Nepal. Monsoon rains that begin in June and end in September often cause severe flooding in Nepal, disrupting infrastructure and endangering lives.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Floods sweep away 18 people and bridge linking Nepal to China
At least 18 people were swept away in Nepal as a flooded mountain river destroyed the main bridge linking the Himalayan country with China. The flooding in the Bhotekoshi river destroyed the Friendship Bridge at Rasuwagadi, 120km north of the capital Kathmandu, in the early hours of Tuesday. The flood also swept away several houses as well as trucks and electric cars parked near the border for customs inspection. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, those swept away included 12 Nepalis and six Chinese nationals. China's official Xinhua news agency said 11 people also remained unaccounted for on the Chinese side of the mountainous border. The missing Chinese nationals were working at the Inland Container Depot being built about 80km north of Kathmandu, Arjun Paudel, a senior administrative official in Rasuwa district, told Reuters. "The river also swept away some containers with goods imported from China,' he said. Rescue efforts were underway as officials assessed the damage and searched for the missing people. An army helicopter was able to lift some people stranded by the flooding. Police said 95 rescuers were already in the area and more were expected to join them. The destruction of the bridge halted all trade between Nepal and China through this route. The longer alternative now is for goods to be shipped from China to India and transported overland to Nepal. Weather forecasters said the flood could have been the result of an overflowing glacial lake in Tibet since there had been no heavy rainfall in the immediate catchment area of the river in the preceding 24 hours. Nepal's weather forecasting department is working with Sentinel Asia, an international initiative that uses space-based technology to support disaster management in the Asia-Pacific region, to determine the cause of the flooding. Monsoon rains from June to September often cause severe flooding in Nepal, damaging infrastructure and endangering lives. Floods caused by monsoon rains have also wreaked havoc in India and Pakistan. At least 23 flash floods and 16 landslides caused by unusually heavy rainfall over the weekend left dozens of people missing and washed away hundreds of houses, bridges, roads and electricity pylons in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In Pakistan, at least 79 people have died in floods, landslides and house collapses since 26 June, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Tuesday. The agency issued fresh alerts for flash flooding and glacial lake outbursts in the northern and northwestern provinces of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, citing "a significant rise in temperatures and an upcoming weather system'.
