Himalayan glacial floods pose growing threat, UN warns

Millions of people in the Himalayan region face growing risks from glacial floods, a senior United Nations official has warned, as concerns rise over increasingly unstable glaciers and glacial lakes.

Kanni Wignaraja, an assistant secretary-general at the UN, said entire stretches of riverbanks could become effectively uninhabitable as glacial lakes expand and threaten downstream communities.

“Technology cannot move fast enough to prevent loss along these massive river systems that catch the overflow of the glacier lakes,” Wignaraja told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The warning follows devastating floods in Nepal and comes amid heightened concerns over landslides and flooding across the Himalayan region.

The US Embassy in China on Aug. 30 warned of the risk of further landslides and flooding in Tibet due to additional rainfall through Sept. 1. China’s Premier Li Qiang visited the affected area on Aug. 27, while a regular month-end meeting of the country’s top leaders focused on the disaster response.

A government readout said the affected region is a cold plateau surrounded by glaciers and exposed to potential natural hazards.

Researchers have previously identified at least 47 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal, China and India, although later estimates suggest the actual number could be much higher.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, said the devastating impact of the Nepal floods could not be understated.

“While the precise chain of events that led to this disaster will take time to reconstruct, the wider picture is already clear: the world’s frozen regions are losing mass, and as they do, they are becoming less stable,” he said.

Buontempo pointed to the collapse of Switzerland’s Birch Glacier in May 2025, when a massive ice and rock slide buried the Alpine village of Blatten. Residents had been evacuated before the landslide.

He said the Nepal floods underscored the importance of continued satellite monitoring and early-warning systems to identify danger signs, improve risk planning and allow vulnerable communities to evacuate in time.

“It is evident that the climate of the past has shifted – we must redouble our efforts in preparing for the future,” Buontempo said.