UNICEF Seeks $17.2 Million for 17,000 Nepal Flood-Hit Children

Q: What terrifying climate trigger caused Nepal's devastating flash floods without a single drop of heavy rain?

The trigger was not heavy rain but a sudden glacial collapse high in the Himalayas — likely an ice-rock avalanche that slammed into a river valley and unleashed a catastrophic flood downstream. Reporting and preliminary scientific assessments indicate that part of a glacier broke away at roughly 5,200 meters elevation, plunged into the Lhende Khola basin, and sent ice, rock and sediment crashing into the river system feeding Nepal’s Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers. Debris appears to have temporarily dammed the river before the blockage failed, releasing a powerful surge of water, mud and boulders. That is why officials and residents were caught off guard: there was no intense rainfall at the time. Early reports briefly pointed to an earthquake, but the US Geological Survey later said the seismic signal was generated by the landslide and glacial collapse itself, not by a quake triggering it. Scientists say the event highlights a growing climate danger in the warming Himalayas. Rapid glacier melt, thawing permafrost and increasingly unstable mountain slopes are making collapses, debris flows and outburst-style floods more likely. While experts say it is too early to assign this single disaster solely to climate change, they agree that warming conditions are increasing the risk of exactly this kind of sudden, high-mountain catastrophe.

1 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Aug 27

$17.2 million is needed to sustain UNICEF's early response for more than 17,000 children left needing urgent aid after Nepal's flash floods.
Children in the affected areas face rising risks of disease, malnutrition, violence and exploitation after many lost homes, relatives and basic security, UNICEF's Nepal representative Alice Akunga said.
UNICEF is already operating on the ground but said funding is urgently required to keep reaching children and women until the full scale of needs is assessed.
Without new money, the agency warned, essential services for children and women in flood-hit communities will be severely constrained.