Over 290,000 in Nepal face extreme flood risk as Himalayan ice melts, study finds

Long before a wave of water rushed down the Bhote Koshi river and its tributaries, researchers were working to calculate just how many people are living downstream and exposed to potentially catastrophic flood risk in the areas that drain from Nepal’s high mountain basins.
The number they came up with — about 294,000 and growing — shows just how many people are living in areas of extreme risk in a country where climate change is destabilizing the rock and ice holding Himalayan slopes together and where meltwater is pooling in an ever-growing catalog of glacial lakes.
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