• BLOG SURF
KATHMANDU, JUNE 20
In Asia and the Pacific, we have entered the season – June through August – for flash floods and landslides.
The number of flash floods is increasing, breaking historical records, and bringing with them the associated human, economic, and infrastructure losses and damage, according to the global disaster database EM-DAT.
It is estimated that in 2018 alone, the region incurred flash flood damage of about $3 trillion. Many floods are small and spread across remote locations worldwide, making estimates of their impact difficult.
Mountainous countries like Afghanistan, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka tend to top the list of countries highly impacted by flash floods.
Tracking the impact of floods is complex because they come in many forms and for myriad reasons.
Flash floods are often triggered by excessive rain on mountain slopes, sudden release of water from reservoirs or other reasons. They can occur in small watersheds at any time of the day and are dangerous.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 21, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
