Govt forms expert committee to study Bhotekoshi flood

KATHMANDU: The government has formed a seven-member expert committee to carry out a scientific investigation into the floods that struck the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa.

The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation announced on Wednesday that the panel will be coordinated by water policy and governance expert Devesh Belbase. The committee includes hydrologist Dr Narendra Man Shakya, glaciologist Dr Rijan Bhakta Kayastha, remote sensing specialist Dr Uttam Babu Shrestha, geologist Dr Meghraj Dhital, hydropower infrastructure expert Dr Hari Pandit and disaster risk reduction specialist Anil Pokharel, the ministry’s spokesperson Mohan Kumar Shakya said.

The team will undertake a field study from the flood’s point of origin through the entire riverside area. The ministry said the inquiry will examine the actual causes of the flood, mountain land risks, the sequence of events and any possible role of climate change.

The decision follows a proposal from the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat, which urged that the devastating event in the Bhotekoshi and the subsequent impacts on the Trishuli River be treated as a potential chain disaster arising from a combination of geographical, glacial and hydrological risks in the high Himalaya.

A preliminary assessment by the Hydrology and Water Resources Research Centre under the Secretariat found insufficient scientific evidence to confirm where the incident began, which physical process triggered it, and how those processes propagated through the Bhotekoshi–Lhende river system. The centre recommended a comprehensive study of the full sequence of events before attributing the incident to climate change.

The ministry said the study is also intended to assess risks to infrastructure, noting that similar disasters in other river systems could directly affect projects overseen by the Ministry of Energy, as the Bhotekoshi flood did in the Trishuli Corridor.

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