Nepal flood in Gorkha: landslide blocks Budhi Gandaki river, villages downstream told to evacuate

A landslide in Nepal's Gorkha district has blocked the Budhi Gandaki river and sent a flood downstream, and the authorities have told villagers living along the banks to move to safety, Reuters reported via Business Recorder on Sunday 11 October.

The slide came down at Chumnubri village, about 100 km west of Kathmandu. Gorkha's chief district officer, Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, said several houses and two suspension bridges had been swept away and a hydroelectric project damaged. No deaths had been reported when the news broke. Al Jazeera carried video of buildings being carried off by the water.

Who is on alert

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority warned people along the river in five districts:

• Gorkha
• Tanahun
• Chitwan
• East Nawalparasi
• West Nawalparasi

It asked residents to help people at risk reach safe ground in time and to support search and rescue teams. Army and police rescuers have reached the area and are watching the river from a helicopter.

Why this river matters

The Budhi Gandaki feeds the Trishuli, one of the rivers that carry Himalayan meltwater south towards India's Gangetic plain. A landslide dam is dangerous because the lake that builds up behind it can burst without warning, sending a second, larger wave downstream. That is why the order covers villages well beyond Gorkha.

It is the second disaster on this river system in two months. In August a glacier collapse on another Trishuli tributary caused a flood that killed 1,457 people, with thousands still missing, according to Reuters. The authorities have not linked the two events.

The same risk in Pakistan

Pakistan's northern valleys face the same threat. Glacial lakes and landslide dams in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral are watched by the NDMA and provincial disaster authorities, who issue evacuation orders the same way when a river is blocked. Read our Gilgit-Baltistan coverage for travel conditions in the north this autumn.