Devastating mudslide in the Himalayas: Over 1,200 dead in Nepal and China

As is often the case with crises of this magnitude, it took a few days until the full extent of the horror was revealed. A week after the devastating mudslide in the Himalayas that buried entire villages, the death toll in Nepal and China has risen to more than 1,200. With thousands of people missing, the number of victims is likely to rise. Since well-known trekking tours lead through the affected region, Germans are also among the missing.

For Nepal, the flash flood is one of the largest disasters in its history. The small Himalayan state is now dependent on help. In addition to money, medical supplies, food and clean drinking water, he needs technical support. The rescue workers have to reach hundreds of workers trapped in tunnels at hydroelectric power plants, rescue the dead from the meter-deep mud and protect the survivors from further impending floods.

As a country with low greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal was not responsible for the tragedy itself. Even if a causality between global warming and the ice and debris avalanche on Langtang Lirung Mountain could not be directly proven, it has been scientifically proven that climate change is melting the glaciers and thawing the permafrost. According to Nepal's Foreign Minister, the international community's responsibility is not limited to humanitarian aid, but should also take climate justice into account.

The climate crisis is universal, but the consequences are hitting some countries particularly hard, even though they contributed little to its creation. As the main historical causes of climate change, industrialized nations should help those suffering countries that are unable to do so themselves to cope. But Nepal's neighbors China and India, the countries with the largest and third largest carbon dioxide emissions, also have to make their contribution - and of course the USA, as the second largest emitter, which wants to get out of the affair completely.

The government in Kathmandu, which is only six months old, should also subject the country itself to uncomfortable discussions. This includes the question of whether the dense development and the development of more and more hydroelectric power plants along the mountain rivers contributed to the disaster. Structural corruption and nepotism in Nepal could also have exacerbated the disaster. The government needs to address this. She also owes this to the young protest movement that overthrew the government at the time a year ago and paved the way for the current government.

Despite all the political challenges facing Nepal's democracy, the causes of the catastrophe there can at least be discussed. Things are different in the Chinese one-party state. There, the images of the tsunami are censored, the number of victims is not updated for days and rescue propaganda is spread. Since the tsunami hit mountainous regions of Tibet, the issue is politically sensitive. Furthermore, no one should think that the mighty China is helpless at the mercy of nature.

The world's second largest economy does not need any outside help to overcome the crisis. However, Nepal would like cross-border communication with China to improve so that it can warn earlier of an approaching catastrophe.

China's role in the crisis is currently being questioned even more sharply elsewhere. In neighboring India, some observers are convinced that China has interfered with nature in such a way that it creates a greater risk. The massive construction of hydroelectric power plants, roads, tunnels and bridges on the Chinese side has led to instability. However, so far there is no evidence that there could be a direct connection to the disaster in Nepal.

The criticism from India is not surprising, after all, the country has been fighting with China for influence on the “roof of the world” for years. The Himalayas are of great strategic importance for Asia. In South Asia, more than one and a half billion people live in the basins of the rivers that flow from the highest mountains in the world. For Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, the mountain range is a spiritual place. Pilgrims reported seeing the face of Shiva appearing to them on a mountainside during the mudslide.

The international community should strive to protect this unique cultural and natural area. According to a study, the glaciers in the affected Nepalese Langtang region have already lost 41 percent of their area compared to 1815. No one therefore expects this to be the last catastrophe of this dimension. In view of the numerous forest fires, heat records and floods, the statement becomes a truism. As we all know, the greatest stupidity lies not in making mistakes, but in making the same mistake over and over again.