Protecting livelihoods and assets at risk from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and climate change-induced flooding in glacial river basins of Nepal

Nepal is experiencing accelerated glacial retreat due to climate change, intensifying the risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), which threaten the safety, livelihoods, and critical infrastructure of downstream communities. With limited technical expertise, constrained financial resources, and a growing public debt burden, Nepal lacks the capacity for proactive and large-scale GLOF risk reduction.

The project aims to protect communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems from increasing GLOF risks caused by human-induced climate change and to reduce human and economic losses.  It will use an integrated approach combining physical lake lowering, downstream ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction measures, and early warning systems.

Key activities include enhancing the technical and institutional capacity of relevant government departments and agencies to develop and integrate climate risk and hazard information into planning and development; improving hazard monitoring and the generation of early warnings, including the dissemination of early warnings to local communities and key economic sectors; and decreasing the probability of GLOF events and flash floods, through disaster risk reduction measures implemented in priority glacial lake watersheds.