Shafaqna English– A full three months prior to the catastrophic deluge that unleashed a torrent of water, mud, and boulders upon a Himalayan valley straddling the Nepal-China border—claiming hundreds of lives—a critical meeting had already taken place in Kathmandu.
During that session, experts and government representatives from both nations convened to assess the looming threat of precisely such glacial-outburst and landslide-induced disasters, signalling that the risk had been on the radar well before the tragedy unfolded.
According to a meeting agenda drafted by the Nepalese side and later obtained by Reuters, the Kathmandu gathering on May 27 brought together 10 Nepali officials alongside roughly a dozen Chinese representatives—among them delegates from the Tibet Autonomous Region, which would later become the epicentre of the disaster.
The primary focus of their discussions centred on enhancing bilateral cooperation in monitoring and emergency response mechanisms for floods, adverse weather patterns, and glacier-related natural hazards.
Source: Reuters