Image copyrightNEPALESE ARMYImage captionDrainage of the high altitude lake often has to take place during bad weatherNepal’s army has started work to drain rising waters in a lake near Everest at nearly 5,000m (16,400ft).
Scientists say that is vital to partially drain Lake Imja to stop it from bursting its banks with potentially devastating consequences.
Imja is one of thousands of lakes in the Himalayas formed by the melting of glaciers. But last year’s earthquake may further have destabilised it.
It is the highest drainage project of its kind, the military says.
The altitude at which the work is being completed has posed logistical challenges for the army.
Rising temperatures are accelerating glacial meltdown and rapidly filling such lakes, threatening communities and infrastructure downstream.
Image copyrightOUTBURSTImage captionThe danger of the lake overflowing has been made worse by last year’s earthquake
Image copyrightNEPAL ARMYImage captionTransporting equipment to the lake is only possible by helicopterWith UN funding, Nepalese army personnel and villagers are working to reduce Lake Imja’s level by three metres (9.8ft) in the next few months. Weather conditions are harsh, with workers facing the added risk of altitude sickness.
Lt Col Bharat Lal Shrestha of the Nepalese Army told the BBC that about 40 army staff were working alongside Sherpa and other highland community members.
The plan is to construct an outlet through a diversion channel and gradually release water over 45 days.
“We can work for only two to three hours in a day as most of the time it snows making it very cold in addition to the fog and wind,” Col Shrestha said.
“Our personnel get headaches and altitude sickness from time to time and we make them descend to our lower camp where they can recover and eventually come back to work.”
While troops were acclimatising, heavy equipment was airlifted to the site by helicopter.
Officials say the army was called in after two rounds of international bidding to complete the work failed to produce a contractor.
“This is the highest altitude disaster risk mitigation work ever performed by any army in the world,” Col Shrestha said.
The draining of the lake is a part of a UN project to help Nepal deal with the impact of climate change.
Glacial lakes have broken their banks in Nepal more than 20 times in recent decades. Three of those incidents have been in and around the Everest region.
Nepal lowered the level of another dangerous glacial lake, the Tsho Rolpa, in the Rolwaling valley west of the Everest region, in 2000.
Many lakes in parts of the Himalayas are feared to have been weakened by a powerful earthquake which killed 18 climbers, as well as thousands of Nepalis, in 2015.
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Bulletin shows progress in fight against pollution
- China.org.cn
- June 2, 2016
China saw environmental improvements last year with large reductions in many airborne pollutants and severely polluted surface water, according to the annual bulletin on national environment quality released on Thursday.
However, the report found that 265 of the 338 cities surveyed failed to reached national air quality standards, and more needs to be done to protect underground aquifers.
The bulletin, released by the Environmental Protection Ministry, examined all aspects of the nation’s environment from air and water quality to farmland and forest coverage and levels of background radiation.
It showed a general improvement in air quality last year, with the 74 major cities that were monitored exhibiting a 14.1 percent year-on-year decrease in levels of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 microns that is harmful to health.
Among the 338 monitored cities nationwide, 21.4 percent reached the national air quality standards last year, the bulletin said.
In 2014, 161 cities were regular conducting air quality monitoring and only 9.9 percent of these reached the national standard, according to the bulletin.
Xia Guang, director of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, told China Central Television on Thursday that the current action plan against air pollution was working, but more effort was required to help the majority of cities reach national standards.
To further control air pollution, the central government has allocated more funds — around 10.7 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in 2015 — to fuel the local governments’ efforts in reducing emissions of air pollutants by shutting down heavily polluting companies, for example.
Water pollution is another issue. There are 972 surface water monitoring stations in China on 423 waterways, covering 10 of the country’s major river basins — including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.
Of these stations, 8.8 percent reported water quality of a standard so poor last year that it could not be used for any purpose, whether for drinking, irrigation or industrial use — this being the bottom tier in the national water quality system, and a 0.4 percent year-on-year reduction on 2014 levels.
China plans to expand the number of monitoring stations to 2,767 by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), the ministry said in March, to further reduce pollution and facilitate efforts to improve water quality.
Underground water supplies are another matter. Among the 5,118 subterranean monitoring stations scattered across 202 of the nation’s cities, 63.3 percent reported water quality last year in the bottom two tiers of the five-tier national water quality system, the bulletin showed.
In 2014, 61.5 percent of the then 4,896 monitoring stations reported water quality that fell into the bottom two tiers.
Elsewhere, China saw a 107,300-hectare decrease in farmland last year, with more than 645 million hectares of farmland recorded nationwide.
