The risk of a lake formed after the glacier collapse bursting near the China-Nepal border where the devastating flood occurred earlier this week has decreased, Chinese authorities said today, as its size appears to have shrunk. Satellite images from Thursday this morning suggest water in the lake – straddling the China-Nepal border at the confluence of two rivers – has been slowly flowing through, decreasing the reservoir gradually, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the Water Resources Ministry. The ministry said satellite imagery of the surface area of the lake at Purepu Tsangpo river showed it was 99,000 sq metres in size this morning – around the size of 14 football fields combined – having shrunk by 21,000 sq metres compared with images from Thursday.
Experts and authorities have warned of the extremely high risk of secondary disasters in the valley, especially from the lake that was formed by glacier debris, potentially endangering rescue operations downstream. State-owned engineering and rescue enterprise China Anneng, which has been monitoring the lake since Thursday, dispatched a 15-member team on Friday with reconnaissance drones, portable satellite stations and mobile surveillance cameras to gather more data about the lake. An overflow from the lake on Friday temporarily halted rescue work before further assessment deemed the risks manageable.
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