Deadly flash flood in Rasuwa — a call for urgent climate action

Yesterday, a horrific flash flood struck the district of Rasuwa in Northern Nepal at the border with Tibet. 160 have been declared dead, and over 1000 are still missing, while countless houses, bridges, and infrastructure have been washed away or severely damaged.

This terrible event was due to the collapse of a glacier higher in Tibet and is doubtlessly related to the changing climate and warming temperatures of the past few months/years in this region — it is estimated climate warms 2-3 times faster in the Himalayas than anywhere else on the globe, making it the “Third Pole”.

The world is drowning and burning, and we need to act now to mitigate climate change and support vulnerable communities to adapt to its effects — Nepal is ranked 4th on the list of countries most affected by climate change.

Himalayan Environment and Life Protection, H.E.L.P. is the NGO created by Mingyur Rinpoche to fight against climate change and protect the environment in his home remote high Himalayan region of Nubri and Tsum in Nepal, not far from Rasuwa where the flood happened: we plant trees, regenerate ecosystems, support food systems, protect biodiversity and help communities to adapt, all of this contributing directly or indirectly to lessening the warming of temperatures in the world and in Nepal.

If you want to support our work and Mingyur Rinpoche’s vision in empowering communities to adapt to a changing world so that disasters like this don’t happen again, get in touch with us.