Kathmandu, October 11:<\/strong> A temporary river blockage caused by a landslide near Chumchet in Gorkha district may have collapsed, triggering the flash flood in the Budhi Gandaki River on Sunday morning, according to a preliminary assessment by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on initial reports from Nepal\u2019s government agencies, ICIMOD said the landslide may have blocked the river, forming a temporary barrier that later burst and released a large volume of water, mud, sediment and debris downstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flood is estimated to have started at around 4 am on Sunday, October 11. Fluctuations in river levels prompted authorities to issue alerts to communities along the Budhi Gandaki, Trishuli and Narayani river systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preliminary reports indicate that several people are missing, while houses, bridges and riverside infrastructure have been damaged. The 341-megawatt Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project site in Salleri, Gorkha, has also suffered damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities are assessing the extent of the destruction as search and rescue operations, evacuations and relief efforts continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICIMOD Director General Pema Gyamtsho said the incident, following the recent Rasuwagadhi\u2013Kerung disaster, highlighted the vulnerability of mountain communities and settlements along river corridors to natural hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stressed that immediate response efforts should remain the priority, while understanding the causes of such floods would be essential to preventing similar disasters in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, Qianggang Zhang, ICIMOD\u2019s strategic lead for climate and environmental risks, said the preliminary findings pointed to a debris-laden flood caused by the collapse of a landslide-dammed river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He emphasized the importance of integrated monitoring of landslides and river systems in steep mountain catchments, where hazards can develop rapidly and threaten downstream communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest incident has drawn comparisons with a flood-related event in the Budhi Gandaki region in April 2024, when a large avalanche near the terminus of the Manaslu Glacier displaced water from Birendra Lake, causing a sudden rise in river flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A detailed study led by ICIMOD concluded that the 2024 event was not a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). Instead, it resulted from water displacement caused by the avalanche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICIMOD said the two incidents demonstrate how different natural processes can trigger destructive floods in Himalayan river systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The centre has stressed the need to consider landslides, river dynamics, vulnerable settlements, infrastructure and cascading hazards in future disaster-risk reduction and reconstruction planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kathmandu, October 11: A temporary river blockage caused by a landslide near Chumchet in Gorkha district may have collapsed, triggering the flash flood in the Budhi Gandaki River on Sunday morning, according to a preliminary assessment by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Based on initial reports from Nepal\u2019s government agencies, ICIMOD said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":406476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"reporter":[],"class_list":["post-437668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-en-news","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437669,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437668\/revisions\/437669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437668"},{"taxonomy":"reporter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter?post=437668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Similarities With the 2024 Flood Event<\/h3>\n\n\n\n