EARTHCHAT: Nepal’s 2026 Tsunami

Listen at noon, Tuesday 17 November on SeymourFM

Hashim GC and Doma Sherpa join Ruth from Nepal, along with Florence Reynolds, from NZ, to reflect on this year’s terrible event.

A devastating bedrock landslide that triggered a catastrophic flash flood and debris flow in the Vhote Kosi River valley and Trishuli River valley corridors to the north of Kathmandu, along the border between Nepal and Tibet, creating a violent, high speed surge of water, rock, and mud that traveled dozens of kilometers downstream in minutes, causing widespread destruction - killing 1500 people, with over 5,000 people still unaccounted for. Subsequent aftermath flooding and landslides have continued since that date.

While they themselves were safe in Kathmandu, which is in a different valley, and therefore not in the path of this tsunami, Hashim, Doma, and Florence sprang into action to assist survivors who managed to reach the capital to seek shelter and refuge. I wish to pay homage to their front line contribution helping the many displaced people from this terrible tragedy.

While pre-existing geological fractures from the 2015 earthquake created underlying structural weakness, scientists at World Weather Attribution concluded that decades of fossil fuel-driven warming and extreme regional heat pushed the mountain past its breaking point.

Temperatures in the Himalayan region during July and August 2026 reached roughly 5°C above normal. Climate attribution researchers found that human-caused global warming directly added about 1.5°C to these summer temperatures, subjecting high-altitude ice and rock to intense thermal stress and permafrost degradation, increasing water pressure, and lubricating the slope for failure.

Himalayan glaciers have thinned by approximately half a meter per year since 2000, with local ice receding by 1% to 2.3% annually.

Despite contributing less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal faces roughly $4.8 billion in reconstruction costs—nearly 10% of its GDP. In response to the disaster's clear climate links, the UN's Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage approved an initial $20 million relief allocation in October 2026.

Hashim, Doma and Florence help us understand the cultural, social, geographical, and environmental significance for the Nepalese people, whose lives revolve around and depend upon the rivers and the mountains of the Himalayas.

Join us for this moving account. This global tragedy ultimately impacts us all living on this beautiful and precious planet Earth. See below for ways we can help.

Bios

As(h)im GC transitioned from project management to sustainability leadership, founding Nadī Experience after returning back to Nepal from New Zealand. He is an award-winning photographer and avid mountain lover. With a background in engineering and environmental management, he has led climate and sustainability projects with global stakeholders.

Doma Sherpa studied Banking & Insurance thinking she would become a banker someday. In these times she finds herself in branding, marketing, and other similar creative pursuits. At the core of it all, she is deeply family-oriented, always choosing her people first, no matter what. In these times of recovery after the profound ecological tragedy in Nepal on August 26, and continuing, Doma has been found on the front lines supporting survivors in a number of ways including creating practical rescue bags for people who have been left stranded and homeless. 

Florence Reynolds has extensive experience working on climate change and waste issues across community organisations, local and central government, and internationally. This work has ranged from developing practical pathways to a zero-carbon future, to building the partnerships and communities needed to make that vision a reality. She has led work in organisational strategy and policy, emissions measurement and reduction, sustainable procurement approaches, city-wide decarbonisation planning, and coordination of an international climate network.

Ways you can help:

Ashim, Doma, and Florence suggest some reliable pathways for donations. They also encourage donations to charities that you trust. 

Here are some they know have been working in Nepal.

- The Nepal Govt's relief fund: https://pmdrf.nchl.com.np/

• Local Red Cross or IFRC https://donate.redcrossredcrescent.org/ifrc/nepal-flash-floods/~my-donation?_cv=1

- World Kitchen: https://wck.org/relief/flash-flooding-nepal/

- If anyone would like to commit to longer-term recurring support for families who lost breadwinners with ongoing costs such as school/medical fees please email us at journey@nadiexperience.com

• If anyone is in Nepal and would like to volunteer check out the Karmi Initiative. https://karmiinitiative.wordpress.com/?

Photographs: 

1. Thanks to Anuj Adhikary (The devastated River).

2. And Ramesh Tamang, (Nepalese army unloading helicopter drop bags that Hashim, Doma and Florence had packed in Kathmandu containing tarp, rope, clothes, torch, blanket, and other essentials).

All on this week's EarthChat. Tune in on Tuesday, 17 November.

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