[1/2]Remains of the bridge connecting Adarsh Gaon to Singtam are pictured on the banks of the Teesta River at Singtam in Sikkim, India, October 5, 2023. Portal/Wang Chen NO RESALE. NO ARCHIVES acquire license rights
NEW DELHI, Oct 6 (Portal) – Scientists and government agencies were working on an early warning system for glacial flooding at a Himalayan lake in northeast India when it burst its banks this week, causing deadly consequences.
The mountainous state of Sikkim plunged into chaos on Wednesday as floods triggered by heavy rains and an avalanche killed at least 40 people. It was one of the worst disasters in the region in 50 years, with dozens still missing on Friday.
The first part of the system, a camera to monitor Lake Lhonak levels and weather instruments, was installed last month, officials involved in the project told Portal.
If the warning system was fully operational, it could have given people more time to evacuate, scientists said.
Details of the Lhonak Lake warning system have not yet been disclosed.
“It’s actually quite absurd,” said geoscientist Simon Allen from the University of Zurich, who is involved in the project. “The fact that it happened just two weeks after our team arrived was completely unlucky.”
He said they planned to install a tripwire sensor that would trigger if the lake was about to burst. This would normally be accompanied by an alarm system warning residents to immediately evacuate to higher ground.
“The Indian government was not willing to do this this year, so it was done in a two-stage process,” he said.
The surveillance devices were supposed to send data to authorities, but according to a source at the Swiss embassy supporting the project, the camera lost power for an unknown reason in late September.
As climate change warms high mountain regions, many communities are facing dangerous Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). Lakes containing water from melted glaciers can overflow and burst, sending torrents pouring into mountain valleys.
According to a 2022 study, more than 200 such lakes now pose a very serious threat to Himalayan communities in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan.
In recent years, early warning systems for glacial floods have been deployed in China, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan. The early warning systems at Lake Lhonak and another at nearby Shako Cho in Sikkim should be among the first in India for flooding in glacial lakes, sources told Portal.
Scientists have said for years that the two lakes were at risk of flooding, but the design process and search for funding allowed time to pass without progress.
India plans to install early warning systems at several other glacial lakes, said Kamal Kishore, a senior official at India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
He did not answer further questions about the Lhonak project.
However, Farooq Azam, a glaciologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, noted that even if the system had been in place, the potential benefits would not have always been clear.
“Events like this happen so quickly that even if we have some kind of early warning system, we might only gain a few minutes, maybe an hour,” he said.
Reporting by Ali Withers in Copenhagen, Gloria Dickie in Amsterdam and Shivam Patel in Delhi; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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