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Rebuilding in Nepal‑Tibet will be challenging…

World · September 5, 2026 · The Conversation · 4 min

Cascading hazards and entrenched inequalities have led to false starts in reconstruction and ongoing suffering since the 2023 disaster in India’s eastern Himalayas.

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <figure> <img alt="bridge and road on hillside, " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/757746/original/file-20260903-50-db8mcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&rect=0%2C326%2C6240%2C3510&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" /> <figcaption> The city of Gangtok, India in June 2026. The devastating 2023 Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood triggered massive landslides, destroying infrastructure across the Teesta Valley. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gantock-sikkim-14th-june-2026-devastating-2811757103">Soumitra Giri/Shutterstock</a> </figcaption> </figure>

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-mcgowran-1631477">Peter McGowran</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/queens-university-belfast-687">Queen's University Belfast</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rinchen-angmu-lama-2762038">Rinchen Angmu Lama</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/indian-institute-for-human-settlements-iihs-3240">Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)</a>

Debris flowing down a Himalayan valley. Towns and villages washed away. Thousands of people affected. Not the recent devastating catastrophe on the Nepal-Tibet border, but a similar disaster in the Indian eastern Himalayas in 2023.

That <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads2659">climate change-related disaster</a> was triggered by a <a href="https://www.preventionweb.net/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/mh0607">glacial lake outburst flood</a>, or glof. It happened <a href="https://savethehills.blogspot.com/2023/10/reconstructing-rough-timeline-of-south.html">under the cover of darkness</a> on the night of October 3. The resulting 270 million cm³ <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads2659">debris flood</a> devastated the <a href="https://savethehills.blogspot.com/2023/11/photographic-record-of-impact-of_26.html">people and infrastructure</a> of the Teesta river valley.

One of us, Rinchen, has been <a href="https://iihs.co.in/project/glacier-lake-outburst-flood-glof-risk-assessment-in-the-eastern-and-western-himalayas/">researching the impacts of and recovery from</a> that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThzagMI_Y0&t=3364s">2023 disaster</a>. During this research, focus-group participants in the state of Sikkim discussed the ongoing impacts of the flood on their surroundings and mental health. “The foundation of the hills [in the Teesta Valley] has been weakened,” one explained. “The rainy season has become extremely difficult – our whole area is sliding.”

<a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/climate-disasters-149576">Cascading hazards</a> and entrenched political and economic inequalities have led to false starts in reconstruction and ongoing suffering, in lieu of meaningful recovery, since 2023.

A <a href="https://savethehills.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-post-glof-look-at-parts-of-teesta.html">local environmental charity</a> has warned how recurring road and bridge collapses caused by landslides and floods in the years since the 2023 glof are isolating communities.

<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-a-collapsing-glacier-turn-into-a-lethal-wall-of-mud-and-water-an-expert-explains-what-happened-in-nepal-290677">No glacial lake was involved</a> in the onset of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/02/after-the-flood-human-suffering-nepal-worst-hit-districts">2026 disaster in Nepal-Tibet</a>, which experts are already confident was <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02716-w">linked to climate change</a>. But despite differences in the processes that triggered the disasters, the impacts have been <a href="https://basispointinsight.com/Story/Topic/stop-calling-it-just-a-flood--understanding-the-new-himalayan-hazard_9e687584ed5f.html">devastatingly similar</a>.

The Bhotekoshi valley in the Nepal-Tibet border region will now be more unstable than before August 2026. Attempts to <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-2015-2030">build back better</a> there will need to bear this <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-tibet-floods-when-disaster-strikes-before-communities-recover-from-previous-climate-extremes-crisis-escalates-290484">new geophysical reality in mind</a>, if they are to avoid generating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2025.106707">new disaster risks</a> through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107261">dangerous resettlements</a>.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"> <a aria-label="Zoomable image" href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="aerial view of flooded valley in nepal, green hillsides, grey water, flooded villages" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/757747/original/file-20260903-50-s3na50.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a> <figcaption> Flooding along the Bhotekoshi River affected low-lying areas and settlements in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 26 2026. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-shows-aftermath-massive-flooding-2837597783">AP Tolang/Shutterstock</a> </figcaption> </figure>

<h2>Inequalities in recovery and reconstruction</h2>

The 2023 disaster affected both <a href="https://savethehills.blogspot.com/2023/11/photographic-record-of-impact-of_26.html">Sikkim</a>, which borders China to its north, and the <a href="https://savethehills.blogspot.com/2023/10/photo-essay-on-glacial-lake-outburst.html">Kalimpong district</a> in the state of West Bengal.

In Sikkim, construction of industrial and military infrastructure continues apace. The Teesta III Chungtang dam that was destroyed by the glof is currently being <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/swept-away-glacial-flood-sikkim-dam-being-rebuilt-lives-downstream-remain-shattered">rebuilt</a>.

On the other hand, funding for relocation and long-term rehabilitation following the disaster has been much slower to arrive, and difficult to access.

The picture is worse in Kalimpong. Having suffered a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2013.764763">decades-long political conflict</a> around a demand for Indian statehood, fragmented state authorities there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848618792821">under-resourced and dysfunctional</a> – one of many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.11.008">drivers of disaster vulnerability</a> in Kalimpong.

Unlike in Sikkim, the flood was <a href="https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/calcutta-hc-defers-hearing-in-tmc-mp-mahua-moitras-challenge-to-arrest-warrant-against-her-674523">not recognised as a disaster in West Bengal</a>. As a result, very limited government funds have been mobilised to support the hundreds affected there.

Given inadequate funding of recovery in both states, Rinchen’s research shows that many people affected by the 2023 disaster and who are vulnerable to the next one would like to move. But they have no means of doing so. Almost three years later, hundreds are still living in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/7/31/no-land-no-home-no-future-himalayan-lepchas-fear-new-dam">unsafe temporary accommodation</a>.

Those now leading recovery and reconstruction in Nepal should also be cognisant of how divisions along the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2010.03.004">intersections</a> of geography, caste, class, race, gender and <a href="https://www.emerald.com/dpm/article-abstract/34/1/9/1241510/Facilitating-the-voices-of-people-with?redirectedFrom=fulltext">ability</a> generate uneven and incomplete recovery outcomes, as witnessed since the 2023 glof. This is leaving aside the complexity of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nepal-floods-chinas-strict-control-of-tibet-makes-it-harder-to-prepare-for-himalayan-disasters-290659">response on the Chinese-Tibetan side of the border</a>.

The distribution of resources to those affected will be particularly challenging given the geographical scale of the disaster. The dead and missing come from all over Nepal, and are spread over hundreds of kilometres.

Disaster management policies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105603">tend to be rigid</a>. They are organised around quantifiable metrics, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104140">strict timeframes</a> and lines on maps that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103797">struggle with this scale of complexity</a>.

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