Nepal will drain four dangerous glacial lakes after August’s floods killed more than 1,400 people. Here is the plan.

The lakes are Thulagi, Lower Barun, Lumding Tsho and Hongu II, sitting between 4,050 and 5,483 metres high. A UNDP-ICIMOD report listed them among Nepal’s most dangerous.

The August disaster was a glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border. It sent landslides and flash floods through valleys, destroying roads and bridges. Over 5,000 people are still missing.

The plan is to lower water levels through canals and gated structures that release water into nearby rivers in a controlled way. Sensors and flood-warning systems will be installed for downstream villages.

It will cost about 50 million dollars, funded by the Green Climate Fund, the UNDP and Nepal’s government. Detailed studies begin before July 2027 and the work could take six years.

Nepal has done this before. Ten years ago it lowered the Imja lake near Mount Everest. The risk is real: when a natural dam of ice and rock fails, a glacial lake outburst flood can destroy everything downstream.