Nepal Faces Fresh Flood Risk, PM Urges Himalayan Climate Cooperation

India and Nepal are bound by the Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950), which allows an open border and free movement of people between the two countries. Nepal's rivers, most of which originate in the Himalayas, flow south into the Ganga basin before entering Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Rivers such as the Kosi, Gandak and Trishuli tie the two countries together hydrologically as much as diplomatically. Joint management of these rivers rests on older bilateral instruments: the Kosi Treaty (1954) covers the Bhimnagar barrage on the Kosi, the Gandak Treaty (1959) covers irrigation and barrage works on the Gandak, and the Mahakali Treaty (1996) governs the Pancheshwar multipurpose project on their western border river. These treaties show how flood control and water sharing between the two countries have long been handled through specific, river-by-river agreements rather than one overarching framework.

The present flood risk follows last month's deadly Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster, which Nepal's leadership described at the United Nations as a 'Himalayan Tsunami'. Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet its glaciers are melting and its mountain slopes are becoming unstable. This matters because Himalayan glaciers feed the Ganga and Brahmaputra systems. As glaciers retreat, melt initially swells glacial lakes and rivers, raising the risk of sudden glacial lake outburst floods, before longer-term glacier loss reduces the steady lean-season flow that irrigation, hydropower and drinking-water supplies in the plains depend on. This two-stage risk is central to why Himalayan glacier melt is treated as a serious long-term threat to India's water security, not just a mountain-district problem.