Nepal: In the shadow of a glacier
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Welcome to The Documentary podcast from the BBC World Service.
How is climate change threatening the remote Nepalese village of Halji?
This is one of the remotest corners of Nepal, right on the country's northwestern border with Tibet. It's taken four days to get here from Kathmandu, and today I've been driven for eight hours along rough, rocky tracks, through deep river valleys framed by towering Himalayan peaks and over a literally breathtaking 5,000-metre pass. I'm now on the Nepalese part of the Tibetan plateau, the roof of the world. We're just passing a herd of about 10 yaks. A few of them are galloping past us with their shaggy tails stuck straight in the air. They've got these magnificent horns, big muscular creatures. I'm on my way to the village of Halji, an isolated mountain community that's home to one of Nepal's oldest Buddhist monasteries.
But the reason I'm going is because the village faces an existential threat from a melting glacier, something that's never felt more relevant given the devastating floods that happened to the east of here just a week ago. Now, whilst the scale of those floods was unprecedented, rising temperatures are destabilising the landscape across the high mountains of Asia. So what's the future for Himalayan communities like Halji? I'm Antonia Bonnybrook-Kent, and this is Assignment.
What happened when a glacial lake flood hit Halji in 2011?
When the flood came in 2011, it was big, very big. We were really scared. Houses were swept away. Two of them were taken by the flood just down there. There were also five or six water mills along this river where we would grind barley, and they were swept away too. And the water came very close to the monastery. Everyone was terrified. Thank God the flood came during the day. If it had come during the night, I'm not sure what would have happened.
Paljo Tamang, a slight man of about 50, is the ward chair and headman of Halji, one of the three villages in the Limi Valley. He's standing beside the fast-flowing Halji River, which plunges down a steep-walled valley right past the village's 70 or so rough stone houses. There's no escape from nature here. Hauji sits in a small green valley collared by forbidding 5,000-metre peaks, their flanks raked by landslides. And at the far end of the valley, past fields dotted with pink and white wildflowers, the Hauji joins the larger Humla-Karnali River. As a boy, Paljo remembers being able to see a glacier in the mountains just above the village. But now it's disappeared from view. And the more the glaciers melted, the more frequent the floods have become.
How's it? When
the big floods came for the first time, I went up the mountain myself with two other guys to see what might be causing it. We were quite daring. We were young then. We followed the flooding river up the mountain looking for the source. It was really tough. We knew we could die if we slipped and were taken by the river, but we were able to get to the top and take a few photos.
How do melting glaciers and glacial lakes put the Limi Valley at risk?
We found there were a cluster of lakes up there, glacial lakes. And when these lakes overflow or when they burst, then the river floods. It becomes a torrent of water and rock.
There's no flood warning system for communities in the Limi Valley, but after the first big floods in 2011, the village got some funding from an NGO to build walls along the banks of the river. It's helped, but everyone knows they're still in a precarious position. Not only are the rivers swollen by glacial meltwater, but warming temperatures are also degrading the permafrost, which acts as a kind of glue binding this landscape together.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:26
2
How is climate change threatening the remote Nepalese village of Halji?
1:26–3:09
3
What happened when a glacial lake flood hit Halji in 2011?
3:09–4:55
4
How do melting glaciers and glacial lakes put the Limi Valley at risk?
4:55–7:18
5
Why do Halji residents stay, and what role does the ancient monastery play?
7:18–12:48
6
How are flood fears and migration changing everyday life in Halji?
12:48–16:33
7
How is Halji preserving its local language and protecting its schoolchildren?
16:33–22:26
8
How are retreating Himalayan glaciers increasing flood risks across Nepal?
22:26–31:33