Rescuers found more bodies overnight as they dug through slushy debris and ice-cold water in a hunt for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan northeast, washing away houses and bridges and forcing thousands to flee.
Officials said the hundreds of rescuers recovered six more bodies early Saturday, bringing the death toll to 47. At least 150 people are still missing.
The flood began shortly after midnight Wednesday, when the waters of a glacial lake overflowed, cracking open the biggest hydroelectric dam in Sikkim state. The icy waters then cascaded through towns in the valley below, where it killed scores of people and carried some bodies kilometers (miles) away downstream, where they were found in the neighboring state of West Bengal and Bangladesh, police said.
Man, having a damn fail is one of my few nightmares. I hope as many people are able to be saved as possible.
Govts in India create large and expensive infra projects based on what the current political party, bureaucracy, private companies, international banks/ funding agencies want. Project sustainability, cost, environmental feasibility, land rights of the indigenous residents, fragility & biodiversity of the hills don’t matter.
The first Teesta III dam was destroyed in an earthquake, as this is a seismically active zone. Environmnetal and technical experts warned against building the 2nd Tessta III dam (this one that has burst), because of the danger that any of the 313 glacial lakes upstream were growing larger due to theglacier melting and would burst in a GLOF incident (which just happened). Sikkimese people who had lived for generations in the hills were displaced, their land rights ignored, and the unique fragile biodiversity of the land laid to waste. Yet, India’s enviromental ministry gave it the go-ahead and the project is classified as a green, clean and renewable energy. The Teesta III project also cost more than the GDP of the state of sikkim where it is/was located.
https://www.cenfa.org/controversies-of-1200-mw-teesta-iii-hep-in-sikkim/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X21001914?via%3Dihub
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rescuers found more bodies overnight as they dug through slushy debris and ice-cold water in a hunt for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan northeast, washing away houses and bridges and forcing thousands to flee.
The icy waters then cascaded through towns in the valley below, where it killed scores of people and carried some bodies kilometers (miles) away downstream, where they were found in the neighboring state of West Bengal and Bangladesh, police said.
Out of the 23 Indian army soldiers who were earlier reported missing, one had been rescued and eight had died, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said, adding that search operations were carrying on.
It wasn’t clear what triggered the deadly flood in the mountainous Sikkim state, the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains.
But the disaster also underscores a climate dilemma that pits local environmental activists who say dams in the Himalayas are too dangerous against authorities pursuing a national green energy agenda.
A 2019 report compiled by the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority identified Lhonak Lake as “highly vulnerable” to flooding that could breach dams and cause extensive damage to life and property.
The original article contains 733 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
