{"id":37910,"date":"2021-06-21T08:07:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T08:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=37910"},"modified":"2021-06-21T16:08:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T16:08:58","slug":"melamchi-a-landslide-dam-break-flood-in-nepal-last-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/06\/21\/melamchi-a-landslide-dam-break-flood-in-nepal-last-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Melamchi: a landslide dam break flood in Nepal last week"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Melamchi: a landslide dam break flood in Nepal last week<\/h4>\n<p>I was away on leave in London last week; as both the South Asia monsoon and the northern hemisphere mountain rockfall season are now underway, there is much to discuss.\u00a0 So, to start, <a href=\"https:\/\/kathmandupost.com\/visual-stories\/2021\/06\/16\/destruction-caused-by-floodwaters-in-melamchi-bazaar\">on 14 June 2021 a large flood struck the Melamchi area of Nepal<\/a> following an early monsoon downpour.\u00a0 The flooding caused high levels of damage.\u00a0 Three people are confirmed to have died, whilst 17 more remain missing.\u00a0 Many houses were destroyed:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37913\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37913\" class=\" wp-image-37913\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-1.jpg\" alt=\"The aftermath of the Melamchi landslide dam break flood in Nepal\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-1.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37913\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The aftermath of the Melamchi landslide dam break flood in Nepal. <a href=\"https:\/\/kathmandupost.com\/visual-stories\/2021\/06\/16\/destruction-caused-by-floodwaters-in-melamchi-bazaar\">Image from the Kathmandu Post<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>It is now clear that this event resulted from the breach of a landslide dam upstream, releasing a torrential debris flow and flood that struck the settlements.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAYA_PATRIKA\/status\/1405118761665929217\">On Twitter there is a short video that has captured some of the landsliding<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ne\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2018\u092a\u0939\u093f\u0930\u094b\u0932\u0947 \u0925\u0941\u0928\u093f\u090f\u0915\u094b \u0916\u094b\u0932\u093e \u092b\u0941\u091f\u094d\u0926\u093e \u092e\u0947\u0932\u092e\u094d\u091a\u0940\u092e\u093e \u092c\u093e\u0922\u0940\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u0939\u0947\u0932\u093f\u0915\u094b\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0930\u092c\u093e\u091f \u092e\u0947\u0932\u092e\u094d\u091a\u0940 \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u0928\u093f\u0930\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u092a\u091b\u093f \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0925\u094d\u092f\u092e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0936\u0947\u0930\u092c\u0939\u093e\u0926\u0941\u0930 \u0924\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0919\u0932\u0947 \u092d\u0928\u0947\u2013 \u0939\u0947\u0932\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0941 \u0917\u093e\u0909\u0901\u092a\u093e\u0932\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0915\u094b \u091a\u094b\u0915\u094d\u092a\u0941\u092d\u0928\u094d\u0926\u093e \u096b\u0966\u0966 \u092e\u093f\u091f\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0925\u093f \u092a\u0939\u093f\u0930\u094b \u0917\u090f\u0930 \u0916\u094b\u0932\u093e \u0925\u0941\u0928\u093f\u090f\u0915\u093e \u0915\u093e\u0930\u0923 \u092e\u0947\u0932\u092e\u094d\u091a\u0940\u092e\u093e \u092c\u093e\u0922\u0940 \u0906\u090f\u0915\u094b \u0939\u094b \u0964<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Melamchi?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Melamchi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Landslide?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Landslide<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Flood?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Flood<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/nayapatrika?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#nayapatrika<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GZNwwUjVB2\">pic.twitter.com\/GZNwwUjVB2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Naya Patrika (@NAYA_PATRIKA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAYA_PATRIKA\/status\/1405118761665929217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The translation of the text is:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Melamchi floods due to landslide&#8217; &#8211; After inspecting the Melamchi area from a helicopter, Health Minister Sher Bahadur Tamang said that the Melamchi was flooded due to a landslide 500 meters above the Chokpu of Helambu village.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/np.news\/2021\/06\/21\/bhremathang-landslide-submerged-melamchi-news\/\">NP News has this graphic of the site<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37915\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37915\" class=\" wp-image-37915\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-2.jpg\" alt=\"Graphic illustrating the landslide at Melamchi in Nepal.\" width=\"800\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-2-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-2-1024x478.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2021\/06\/21_06-Melamchi-2-768x358.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37915\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic illustrating the landslide at Melamchi in Nepal, <a href=\"https:\/\/np.news\/2021\/06\/21\/bhremathang-landslide-submerged-melamchi-news\/\">created by NP News<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>If this is correct then the location is about 28.109, 85.46, but this is unconfirmed.\u00a0 Unfortunately there is too much cloud to get a good satellite image.\u00a0 There are better versions of the inset image on the left above, but these seem to sit on insecure sites so I am not providing a link.\u00a0 They appear to show a very large, valley blocking landslide just above the area with the white circle on this image above.<\/p>\n<p>There also appears to be <a href=\"https:\/\/tkpo.st\/2SJFZDl\">substantial damage to the critically important Melamchi Water Supply Project<\/a>.\u00a0 I note once again that major infrastructure projects are being built in the Himalayas without a proper understanding of the risks from these devastating landslides, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/06\/11\/chamoli-science-paper\/\">as we noted in our recent paper in <em>Science<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, there are also <a href=\"https:\/\/myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com\/news\/fear-of-flash-flood-downstream-as-massive-landslide-blocks-tamakoshi-river-on-the-chinese-side-of-the-border\/\">reports of another valley blocking landslide threatening communities in Nepal<\/a>, this time along the banks of the Tamakoshi River &#8211; this valley blocking landslide is in Tibet.\u00a0 Works are apparently underway to try to unblock the channel.\u00a0 We will watch with interest to see what happens there.\u00a0 Thanks to John Reynolds for highlighting this one to me.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melamchi: a landslide dam break flood in Nepal on 14 June 2021 is reported to have killed up to 20 people and caused serious damage<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[469,15,959,66,72,688],"class_list":["post-37910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-featured","tag-landslide-dam","tag-landslide-report","tag-nepal","tag-south-asia","tag-valley-blocking-landslide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}