Nepal Cannot Stop the Floods. It Can Stop Them From Becoming Disasters.

The floods in Nepal and Tibet have been terrifying: some 1,386 people have died, and around 5,000 remain unaccounted for. The flood destroyed bridges, hydropower projects and entire towns. The scale of the loss is immense but in Nepal and Tibet, the contours of such a disaster are grimly familiar. The Himalayas have been regularly witnessing deadly flash floods. In July 2025, a flood originating in China crossed into Nepal through the Trishuli River basin and killed 19 people. Its dynamics were different, but also involved glacial meltwaters. A flood in the Indian state of Uttrakhand in 2021 killed more than 200 people, and another flood in the Indian state of Sikkim in 2023 killed 55 people. In 2022, the floods in Pakistan affected more than 33 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes, and killed around 1,500.How human choices multiply the flood damage What is driving such recurring events? It would be easy to attribute the flood in Nepal and Tibet simply to climate breakdown. Nepal ranks sixth among the countries most vulnerable to climate risk, and Himalayan glaciers are melting faster as the planet warms. And climate change demonstrably contributed to other devastating event...