In a recent NPR report, Mamita Bhandari and Diaa Hadid begin their story from Kathmandu, where Sumana Shrestha Amatya stood with other protesters urging the government to move faster. Her husband Sunil, a geologist, has been trapped inside a hydropower plant since the August floods. She has heard nothing from officials, yet she understands what they face. It was, she says, like a Himalayan tsunami.
The reporters recount what happened on 26 August. A glacier more than 3,800 feet wide collapsed into the valley below. Thirty-foot waves of rock, water and ice destroyed around 70 bridges and buried 12 hydropower plants along the Trishuli River. About 1,400 bodies have been recovered, and more than 5,000 people are still missing. Only three men have been found alive inside the plants.
Did hydropower projects add to the risk?
The reporters explain that the plants are now under close scrutiny.
- The World Bank helped fund the largest one, Upper Trishuli-1, with about $300 million. Critic Parineeta Dandekar says its risk assessment ignored the combined danger of 36 projects crowded onto one river.
- There is no clear evidence that construction made this flood worse. Engineer Dipak Gyawali says blasting is like scratching your skin compared with the forces of nature involved.
- Yet Gyawali and others agree the combined risk was never properly studied. Each project looks safe alone, says former Indian climate envoy Shyam Saran, but the whole river tells a different story.
- Austin Lord of the Stimson Center notes the basin has flooded fatally three years in a row, each time for a different reason.
A pre-flood warning
Days before the disaster, Lord and colleagues had published a paper warning the area was highly vulnerable.
- The World Bank says the plant’s design reflected the best evidence available in 2018, and that it will review the lessons.
- The Asian Development Bank lent $60 million. Independent experts found no climate resilience assessment had been done.
- Tunnelling expert Arnold Dix defends the plants. He says they were built properly, but the glacier collapse was a new threat that will change future designs.
Rethinking hydropower in the Himalayas
Bhandari and Hadid then turn to the region’s larger dams.
- China and India have built 68 major Himalayan dams, with 101 more planned.
- China’s $170 billion dam in Tibet sits on an active fault line, according to Chinese geologists. Officials say it is safe. Saran warns that failure would be a monumental disaster.
- India’s Arunachal Pradesh fears the dam could become a “water bomb.” India is building its own dam in response, despite strong local opposition.
The reporters conclude with geo-scientist C.P. Rajendran. He urges both countries to opt for smaller, less disruptive projects. He warns that the tragedy may not occur immediately, but it will eventually happen, possibly within 25 or 40 years, unless significant changes are made.
Acknowledgement: This summary was generated using AI writing tools as part of my AI exploration process. For more information, check out the original article listed below.