Risk of lake burst near China-Nepal border disaster site wanes

BEIJING: The risk of a lake bursting near the China-Nepal border, where a devastating flood occurred earlier this week, has reportedly diminished, according to Chinese authorities. The size of the lake, which straddles the border at the confluence of two rivers, has been gradually decreasing, reducing the reservoir by 21,000 square meters since Thursday, CCTV reported.

The Water Resources Ministry cited satellite imagery indicating that the lake's surface area had shrunk to 99,000 square meters, the size of 14 football fields combined, on Saturday morning.

The catastrophic event, triggered by a glacier collapse on Wednesday, swept away a border port complex linking China's Tibet to Nepal, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of people reported missing. The debris, comprising rock, ice, mud, and rubble, has raised concerns about secondary disasters in the valley, particularly the potential threat posed by the lake formed by the glacier debris.

Nepal and China have resumed rescue efforts following the easing of the lake threat, with a death toll surpassing 500. China's engineering and rescue enterprise, China Anneng, has been monitoring the lake since Thursday, dispatching a 15-member team with reconnaissance drones, portable satellite stations, and mobile surveillance cameras to gather additional data.

A senior engineer from the Ministry of Natural Resources' Geological Disaster Technical Guidance Center estimated that a larger body of water at the bottom of the glacier collapse has an area exceeding 120,000 square meters, although its depth remains unknown. Authorities have cautioned that flood risks will persist until both lakes have fully drained.

Rescue workers, braving dangerous conditions and cut-off roads, continued to search for survivors on Saturday morning. As of early Saturday, China's death toll had risen to seven with 554 still missing, while nearly 500 villagers, construction workers, and all 555 tourists from the area had been evacuated.