Ex-Nepal Minister Says China Failed To Warn Nepal Before Deadly Flash Floods
New Delhi: Nepal’s former Forest and Environment Minister Madhav Prasad Chaulagain has alleged that the country received no timely warning from China before a devastating flash flood swept across the Nepal-Tibet border, killing hundreds and leaving thousands missing.
Speaking to NDTV, Chaulagain said Nepal was not alerted before a massive wall of ice, rocks and mud surged across the border at around 8:40 am on Wednesday.
According to him, the lack of timely information-sharing between the two neighbouring countries may have made the human impact of the disaster even worse.
‘We Missed That Opportunity’
Chaulagain pointed out that Nepal and China had already agreed on a mechanism for sharing information following a smaller glacier-related incident in 2025.
However, he claimed that the protocol was not activated before this week’s disaster.
“We missed that opportunity,” he said, arguing that the incident showed why cross-border disaster-warning systems need to work effectively when communities are at immediate risk.
He also disputed claims from Beijing about where the disaster began, saying he believed the event originated in Tibet rather than Nepal.
At the same time, Chaulagain acknowledged that the exact circumstances surrounding the event were not yet completely clear and called for greater transparency from both sides.
Existing Warning Systems Were Not Prepared
The former minister said the disaster had also exposed weaknesses in Nepal’s approach to disaster preparedness.
According to Chaulagain, existing early-warning systems and environmental assessments for hydropower projects have largely focused on known threats such as glacial lake outbursts.
This particular disaster, however, involved a combination of ice and rock falls and the collapse of a glacier-fed river system — a scenario he said had not been adequately anticipated.
He called the absence of a coordinated warning mechanism involving Nepal, China and India a serious gap that needs urgent attention.
“Withholding data is against humanity,” Chaulagain said, stressing the importance of sharing information when lives are at risk.
Death Toll Rises To 626
The devastating floods continued to take a heavy toll on Saturday, with Nepal’s reported death count rising to 626 as rescue and relief operations entered their fourth day.
More than 2,400 people remained missing, according to the latest figures, while thousands of people had been evacuated from areas affected by flooding, landslides and debris.
More than 11,000 security personnel have been deployed for search and rescue operations, including over 5,000 Nepal Army personnel.
Rescue teams are continuing to search through damaged settlements and infrastructure while authorities work to reach people stranded in remote areas.
The disaster has renewed concerns about the growing risks faced by Himalayan communities and the need for countries sharing the region’s rivers and mountain systems to establish reliable, real-time mechanisms for sharing warnings about sudden geological and glacial events.
News Source : Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.
