00:00Nepal is Nepal has been struck with flash floods and scale of disaster is becoming clear by the
00:06with the hundreds dead and large number of people are still missing from your assessment how serious
00:13is the situation on the ground right now sir and what are the biggest challenges challenges facing
00:19rescue and relief operations like this kind of this scale of disaster is it's it's purely on
00:29unprecedented and we had never imagined you know it's that that level of big even if we compare with
00:36the 2015 earthquake i think it it's even you know disastrous than that uh that time that's how
00:43uh we are uh we're feeling in in in Nepal in term of the damage it it it created uh
00:51the havoc it created
00:52the the loss of life it's uncountable i don't know at uh you know so many challenges there
00:59so we through this uh this level of disaster
01:05a kind of you know the a civilization you know that was flourished on that river bank is swiped away
01:13in
01:13in a moment uh second so it's that level of big and and we never imagined uh even our preparedness
01:20you
01:21know you know you know our knowledge local level of knowledge and we have never thought of you know
01:27this skill uh that level of big uh we also still sir i want to understand from you uh how
01:34is the
01:34ground situation are your family safe and uh is family and friends safe and are you in contact with
01:42them who are in these areas can you give us a detail about uh people you know and who are
01:46living in
01:47these areas okay uh currently when i'm talking with you i'm in the western part of Nepal in a village
01:55uh not for the ground site but you know i have my very close friend who was managing uh kailash
02:05manasro uh pilgrimage he was on the border area you know in in in last two or three days he
02:14is missing
02:15uh from that day you know it's been like third day today so we are unknown about his where about
02:22and we have some um friends you know whose spouse you know family they were also in that site working
02:31uh in health sector and we you know the ministry we had some conservation area in that area uh that
02:40that
02:40part so some of the conservation uh people are also missing and moreover uh the district where i
02:47belong from the western nepal uh we have many neighborhoods working in the hydropower projects
02:54uh 91 uh people uh there was a record uh released by the local administration yesterday
03:02so among the one um only 20 uh people they could contact with and the rest of others are still
03:11uh unknown uh
03:12missing some uh it is feared that they are trapped in uh the hydropower the canal uh the so some
03:21signals
03:22it is said to be no uh available from that area but no contact yet uh yesterday um the the
03:31the security
03:31personnel uh there are some helicopter uh rescue operation going on there but it was not complete
03:37even till the uh dusk out they were working so we are hoping that today uh they will be able
03:44to uh
03:45rescue uh some people from there uh or remaining people from there so that is like there are some
03:51personally connected you know stories also there so the area the the area this uh borders area is not just
04:01a commercially uh active you know the trade between china and nepal was happening through that area
04:08so there are there's several um the hydropower projects you know there's some ongoing project
04:14construction work was going on there and this time around like today we are talking it's a it's it's
04:20it's a star one punima it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a big punima people
04:25celebrate for
04:26that they go there in the goesaikund and you know other holy riverside for the bathing so because of
04:33that also you know there's several people traveling through that city that area so we are still unknown
04:39that there might be some other friends uh who we know personally may be lost missing so yeah yeah
04:47so the initial assessment point to a glacial uh collapse or ice lock avalanche triggering the
04:54devastating flash floods how much of this disaster should be viewed through the lens of climate
04:59change or rising temperature and increasing instability of the himalayan ecosystem
05:06i think it's directly connected with that you know from my perspective uh initially there are like
05:12many rumors going on that whether it was because of the earthquake or any other man-made situation on
05:18the tibetian side you know these uh due to the information sharing lags you know we're not able to
05:24process uh what's what is going on on that side but now after uh getting some uh recent satellite imagery
05:31and some analytics uh some experts are providing more realistic information that yes it is primarily
05:38because of the icefall uh melting the big you know mass of icefall which was like collapsed and that caused
05:46the
05:46wave of the glacier uh lake and that ultimately because of the force this mass this this created um
05:55the sedimentation uh flow and which was like much more um
06:02disastrous than the uh fresh water so so yeah ultimately it is actually linked with the uh glacier
06:11meeting which is a mountain climatic uh condition a climatic change condition and apparently it is
06:19not by the people who are residing in that area and they are just becoming the victim of the global
06:25you know these emissions or temperature uh the climate uh issues
06:33a large number of internationals are also missing and accounted for including pilgrims and people
06:39working in affected areas uh what can nepal in coordination with the india do to locate these
06:46people and provide information to their family according to you uh in my uh observation you know
06:53this time around uh because it was uh this incident happening in the morning uh so the government
07:01um mechanisms were immediately enacted uh for the coordination so this coordination within the local
07:08level level as well like so all coordination uh contact points were established uh quickly as quickly as
07:13possible and for the foreigners foreign uh tourist uh pilgrims um and foreign nationals who are working
07:22like there are many nationals you know they are stranded in in that part uh especially the indian side
07:28because um uh this is this time around because of the kailash travel um there's some numbers which were
07:36registered that's why they could uh share that this number of indian tourists were stranded it is
07:43feared that there might be more than that because some there are many other routes that people are
07:48traveling which are not coming from the formal you know registration process there might be many more
07:54so for that uh some contacts were initiated i think uh the indians from the indian government sites
08:00even the indian prime ministers indian foreign secretary they immediately uh extended their support you know
08:07they're like multiple rounds of uh the support uh was sent to nepal and to the ground affected ground zero
08:15site indian ambities were also uh enacted um their contact mechanism so probably through that mechanism uh
08:26uh the friends and families of affected uh people may uh receive the latest information
08:34so sir uh at last i want to ask you about that there is also a warning of further flooding
08:39because
08:39of water and debris accumulating upstream looking ahead what is your assessment of the immediate threat
08:46and what should nepal and uh neighboring countries like china and india be doing together to prevent
08:53this tragedy from becoming even bigger disaster this issue is uh imperative no it's it's it's quite
09:03concerning uh thing uh this morning uh there are some images some messages coming from the that side
09:11that again uh the uh the water uh the icefall uh this the reservation you know uh on the dam
09:20the glacier dam
09:21site uh is increasing uh it may um explode anytime and now they have provided like 72 hours alert that
09:31it may
09:32explode again within 72 hours that's why uh the alerts have been sent out to the downstream uh settlements
09:41you know there are six districts uh until the indian border and there might be many uh affected zone further
09:49also
09:51uh the the local authorities have asked people to um like move up in the in the hill uh part
09:58to to
09:59prevent themselves but the problem is enough people actually find sometimes some people find it very
10:05difficult to leave their home and there's sometime they're like still underestimating the threat uh it's
10:12like sometime you know we have seen during the earthquake that you know after a big shock and there might
10:18be another
10:18after shock may come and the alerts were sent but people thought that okay yeah the big thing i know
10:25it's
10:25already happened there might be uh smaller than that so this is the issue uh the local authorities facing
10:33and there are some other challenges is the the large uh proportion of the road hit uh swiped away so
10:41connecting into the right and we have very limited the flight operate operations like helicopters
10:48so the the government has decided to mobilize all the health services available in the country to that site uh
10:57but there are some
10:58alternative route until you know some point like
11:00no awkward district and and reaching to raswa district which is the bordering part is quite challenging but
11:06uh people are getting to that site and something a smaller scale of the glacier uh golf outburst happened
11:16last year uh which which was actually the early sign uh because of that you know the the tibetian side
11:24of
11:24the indian chinese authorities and nepal agreed to you know exchange some information but apparently
11:31you know this this time we got very late that information so information sharing is a big challenge
11:37and but this has been realized the very first day the day before yesterday so the nepal meteorological um
11:44the agency and the chinese side agreed to share the information it looks like yesterday and
11:50today they have been sharing more information that's why we know what's happened you know upstream there
11:55but it needs to be strengthened and it said not just only are like two countries it's a tri-country
12:00nepal india and china should work together to get you know because the hindakus himalayan range we share
12:06you know all that side and glaciers are there and they are ticking out bomb and now more and more
12:11they are
12:11becoming a threat to the downstream um so i think it's it's a quite concerning and quite challenging time
12:19and we need to work together cross-border
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