As glaciers melt but water runs dry, climate migrants emerge in Nepal’s last forbidden kingdom

LOMANTHANG, Nepal: The passage into Samdzong is a dramatic one. The mountainside settlement emerges through a deep canyon, flanked by sculpted, red mineral cliffs.

Samdzong is running dry. And the families that have called it home for generations have become a new breed of climate migrants in the Himalayas.Climate change is remaking the rules in high-altitude regions. Temperatures are increasing at faster rates than elsewhere on the planet. Snowlines are rising higher and glaciers are retreating at an alarming speed.

Bakki has lived in the village for almost her entire life and does not plan to leave, despite the difficulties. “So some communities are already seeing this, that the water is getting less and less. And you can adapt to it to a certain point. But, you know, after a while, you just can't adapt anymore,” she said.At the same time, climate change is triggering more extreme rain and snow events, with potential cascading consequences including floods, landslides and lake outbursts.

“When we first had to leave, I was heartbroken and more also by the thought that our children were going to have a tougher future, somewhere new in this barren land. But now that we have started living here, it’s not so bad,” Sangmo said. “I think gradually shifting whole villages is the only option. We can do some other options like rainwater harvesting, but that may not be enough for them, and it will be more costly,” said Rijan Bhakta Kayastha, the coordinator of the Himalayan Cryosphere, Climate and Disaster Research Center at Kathmandu University.

Her fears are real. The evidence of a deadly flood is a daily sight in this village and even more so slightly up the river in Chhoser.The riverbed here resembles a rocky moonscape, littered with numerous white stones that bounced down from higher mountains decades ago. “So people live in fear. Because there have already been two deadly floods here, there is fear that a third one might arrive. It’s dangerous. We don’t sleep in peace at night.”In another Mustang village - Dhakmar - Pasng Gurung recalls a dry sunny day descending into chaos, as a sudden mudslide engulfed the stream that flows through a normally picturesque settlement beneath steep mud formations.

Source: Energy Industry News (energyindustrynews.net)

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