The effort to partially drain the giant glacial lake kicked off in June this year. Imja Tsho was described in a 2009 study as being one of the fastest growing of the over 3,000 glacial lakes in the Himalayas.
Lt. Col. Bharat Lal Shrestha led the six-month long operation that included 40 soldiers and 100 villagers. They were able to lower the lake’s level by 3.4 meters (11 feet) to avert an immediate risk of an outburst that would have caused devastating flooding, reports CTV News.
According to Digital Journal, in June 2016, the surface area covered by Imja Tsho, located at an elevation of 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) just 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Mount Everest, expanded from 0.4 to 1.01 square kilometers between 1984 and 2009, triggering concerns it would breach its banks and cause serious flooding in the valley below.
The project to drain the lake involved building an outlet to gradually drain as much as four million cubic meters (141 million cubic feet) of water from the lake. The drainage took nearly two months after the outlet was completed.
The work was done during the rainy season, and soldiers slept out in tents, battling high-altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, snow, and strong winds. “It was physically tiring working in an area where there is about half the oxygen available, but we were able to complete the task and ensure the villagers and visitors are safe,” Shrestha said.
Newsweek is reporting that a flood would have a catastrophic impact on the lives of at least 50,000 people living in nearby villages and even to the southern areas of the country.
There are bout six other lakes in the region that need to have water levels lowered. Global warming is behind the melting glaciers, with some studies saying that most of the Himalayan glaciers will be gone by 2100.
Top Khatri, the project’s manager, told the BBC the process used to lower Imja Tsho would be applied to other lakes in the region. “It was a pilot project that we completed without any unfortunate incident and now this model will be replicated to reduce risks in other glacial lakes as well,” Mr. Khatri said.
