- By Ajeet Kumar
- Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:51 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
- Catastrophic Nepal floods killed nearly 800, raising avoidability questions.
- May meeting discussed China-Nepal cross-border disaster cooperation.
- Nepal sought more glacier risk data, felt sharing insufficient.
Could the disaster in Nepal have been avoided? The question became relevant as the death toll in catastrophic Nepal floods climbed to over 900 on Monday. A report by news agency Reuters claimed experts from China and officials from both countries met in Kathmandu to discuss the risk of such disasters three months before the disaster struck the Himalayan region.
At the May 27 meeting in Nepal's capital, ten officials from Nepal and about a dozen from China, including the Tibet region where the disaster struck, discussed strengthening cooperation to monitor and respond to floods, weather and glacier-related hazards, according to an agenda prepared by the Nepali side and seen by Reuters.
Nepal claims ignorance from China
The participants called for joint risk-reduction measures, including inventories of glacial lakes and hazard mapping. But two Nepali officials told Reuters they did not receive as much information as they wanted from China on glacier risks and water levels after the meeting and they feared insufficient data sharing could hamper their ability to anticipate and prepare for major disasters.
"What we actually wanted from them, and still want, is if there are early movements of glaciers and early movements around that area, we would want to know a bit early," said Sauhardra Joshi, a hydrologist at Nepal's Flood Forecasting Division, who was in the May meeting.
China says its data-sharing has been “timely”
No officials or experts have blamed either side for the natural disaster, which will cost an estimated tenth of Nepal's annual economic output to recover from. Nepali officials say the priority is to deepen cooperation with China.
At the meeting, the Chinese said they did not have the mandate to sign an agreement to meet Nepal's requests, asking for further discussions, said Binod Parajuli, another Nepal government hydrologist.
Details of the meeting and Nepal's demands for broader cooperation in monitoring the glaciers that threaten communities on both sides of the border have not previously been reported.
China's embassy in Nepal said in a statement on X on Saturday that Beijing and Kathmandu had kept in close contact on the issue and had made "substantial progress" at the meeting in May on promoting cross-border disaster information sharing.
Even last year, Nepal asked China for data sharing
Nepal raised similar concerns last year, officials said, though experts and officials cautioned that what they describe as slow progress was not a significant factor in the latest disaster, in which a glacier collapse unleashed a catastrophic mudslide that has killed nearly 800 people in both countries and left more than 3,000 missing, by the latest count.
Rejecting criticism from some Nepali social media users that China had failed to provide adequate warning, the Chinese embassy said Chinese and international experts faced significant challenges monitoring hazards in the remote Himalayan region.
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Chinese teams had shared important information with Nepal "in a timely manner", it said. At last year's meeting, Nepal raised concerns about a flood in the same area, triggered by the sudden release of water from a glacial lake in Tibet that killed at least nine in Nepal and left more than a dozen missing.
"When the Chinese side sees a heavy precipitation forecast in the Tibet area, then they provide us that forecast and those observations," Parajuli said. But "not for avalanche and water level, landslides, extreme events.
"China began sharing forecasts of heavy rain in Tibet over China's WeChat messaging app and email a month ago, Parajuli said.
(With inputs from Reuters)