Rescue workers have resumed a search for hundreds of people still missing two days after catastrophic flash flooding hit the border between Nepal and China. Their efforts were briefly put on hold on Friday after a lake formed by debris began overflowing, threatening areas already devastated by the disaster. "We have received a notice saying that the lake has broken its banks," Narendra Pariyar, the most senior bureaucrat of the hard-hit Rasuwa district, told DW.
"We can see that the level of water in the river is rising." Residents in Nepal's border district of Rasuwa were seen fleeing up hillsides as they braced for a surge in river levels, reported. Authorities later said the threat had eased but that they were closely monitoring the situation. Meanwhile, Nepal said the death toll had risen to 538, up from 390 a day earlier.
China has updated its earlier count of three to five deaths in Tibet. More than 1,400 are still believed to be missing, including as many as 517 foreigners from more than 30 countries. The International Red Cross estimated that over 93,000 people have been directly affected by the catastrophe and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
"We're of course very concerned about a secondary flood," said spokesman David Fischer at a press briefing in Geneva, adding that Red Cross relief trucks had been blocked by the lake which formed following the landslide. Kamal Kishore, Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, warned of further "cascading hazards that might unfold" and said: "The disaster is not yet completely over. It is still unfolding in some ways." The World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the risk of disease in the wake of the disaster.
"Following a disaster of this scale, displacement, overcrowding and disruption to water, sanitation and health services can increase the risk of infectious diseases, including diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses," said spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. Wednesday's disaster, triggered by a glacial collapse that sent rock and meltwater surging into rivers below, left a new danger in its wake: a barrier lake formed upstream by debris dams. China's Ministry of Water Resources said the lake held roughly 2 million cubic meters of water as of Thursday and was expected to receive another 3 million cubic meters — equivalent to about 1,200 Olympic swimming pools — over the following three days, with peak flow expected around September 1.
Chinese national broadcaster CCTV said the lake's barrier sat more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Gyirong Port, the border crossing that was engulfed by the initial flood, and is at an elevation roughly 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above it. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The country had mobilized an eight-member engineering team to survey the lake by air and build 3D models of the site. Engineer Chen Hanxiao described the difficulty of the terrain: "After the glacier collapse created the lake, many isolated cliffs and steep cliffs appeared along it," he told CCTV.
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