From Vaticannews · Vatican News · · 2m
Nepal's flood: children, traffickers and a melting glacier
A glacier collapse killed more than 1,400 people in Nepal, and Caritas is racing food, art therapy and winter kits into the wreckage.
In brief
A glacier collapse killed more than 1,400 people in Nepal, and Caritas is racing food, art therapy and winter kits into the wreckage. Nepal emits almost nothing and pays the highest price, so the response has to treat the melting glaciers as the cause, not just the flood as the event. Originally reported by…
A flood that erased villages
The August 26 flood killed more than 1,400 people in Nepal and left over 5,000 missing. Homes and infrastructure were destroyed across whole valleys.
Caritas mobilizes worldwide
Caritas organizations around the world are backing Caritas Nepal, working alongside the Children and Youth Collaborative Network on the ground.
Drawing to forget
In Rasuwa District, safe spaces and art therapy sessions run for children living in reception centers and temporary shelters.
“We have created safe spaces for them, together with different forms of therapy, such as art therapy.”
Many no longer have anyone
Children watched family members die and homes collapse. Anxiety is widespread, and aid workers expect the number of orphans to keep climbing.
“There are many orphans, and there will probably be many more.”
Traffickers move into chaos
Displacement camps with hundreds of people in motion are ideal hunting ground. Caritas is planning awareness work with health-center staff, aimed especially at girls.
Shelters with no walls
Men, women, adults and children all sleep in the same rooms of the reception centers. Protection for girls and children has to be designed into the shelters themselves.
“They are all living together in the same place.”
Winter is already coming
Community kitchens and essential goods cover the immediate need. Winterization kits are ready for temperatures that are already dropping in the high valleys.
“Winter will be very harsh in these areas, and temperatures are already falling.”
Rebuilding past the emergency
The longer plan with Caritas Nepal includes temporary education centers and housing solutions, plus a broader reconstruction program.
It started with a glacier
A U.S. Geological Survey report traced the disaster to a landslide from a melting glacier. A huge mass of earth fell into a lake, and the earthquake followed rather than caused it.
“It was a glacier-related event.”
0.05% of emissions, all of the cost
Nepal produces about 0.05% of global CO2 yet absorbs floods, droughts and crop losses. Poor countries pay first for a common home nobody is caring for.
“Nepal contributes only a very small share to the ecological footprint, yet it pays a very heavy price.”
Seven minutes of warning
That is how long it took the ice and earth to reach the first villages. Other Himalayan glaciers sit in the same condition, and the flood destroyed the monitoring systems watching them.
“This is the 'early warning' window that can be worked on to ensure people's safety.”
The key point
Nepal emits almost nothing and pays the highest price, so the response has to treat the melting glaciers as the cause, not just the flood as the event.
