(TibetanReview.net, Jul09’25) – Eleven people are missing and 350 displaced on the Tibetan side while at least nine have died and 19 remain missing in Nepal after flash floods hit Gyirong (Tibetan: Kyirong or Kyidrong) Port area on Jul 8 early morning, sweeping away the Friendship Bridge between the two sides and destroying hydropower dams downstream, according to official Chinese and Nepali media reports over Jul 8-9.
The water level of the Donglin Tsangpo river in Gyirong surged that morning, destroying the Rasuwa Bridge (Friendship Bridge) at the Gyirong Port. As a result, 11 people remain missing, including nine construction workers and two road maintenance workers, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Jul 9.
It cited authorities in Shigatse City government as saying the evacuees included 46 villagers from Rasuwa village, 90 Nepali traders and migrant workers, two tourists (including a driver), 61 construction workers, and 11 border checkpoint merchants, with the rest being customs and border inspection staff.
Dozens of container trucks headed to Nepal via the Tatopani border have been stranded in Nyalam, Tibet, due to damaged roads.
“Some 40 to 45 metres of road sections in various parts of the Shigatse-Nyalam-Khasa corridor have been destroyed by floods and landslides, bringing transport to a standstill,” the Kathmandupost.com Jul 9 quoted Phunu Sherpa, president of the Bhotekoshi Chamber of Commerce, as saying.
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On the Nepali side of the border, nine deaths have been confirmed, but only five of the bodies were in identifiable conditions, the kathmandupost.com Jul 9 cited Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Singh Thapa, spokesperson for the Bagmati Province Police Office, as saying.
Those missing in Nepal included six Chinese workers at the Inland Container Depot being constructed with Chinese assistance about 80 km (50 miles) north of capital Kathmandu, besides, three police personnel, Reuters Jul 8 cited Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority as saying on X.
The report said officials in Nepal were unaware of the flood until the waters reached Betrawati, the border point between Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, due to the lack of a real-time data-sharing mechanism with China.
The report continued that the sudden surge of water swept away roads, bridges, hydropower infrastructure, and vehicles, including several container trucks and electric vehicles parked at the Rasuwagadhi dry port. The Friendship Bridge, a key trade link between Nepal and Tibet located 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Kathmandu, was also destroyed, severing cross-border transit and trade.
According to Baburaja Maharjan, CEO of Chilime Hydropower Company, the flood that swept through Kerung and Lendekhola has rendered multiple power stations inoperable. These include the 111 MW Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project, 60 MW Trishuli 3A, 21 MW Trishuli, and 15 MW Devighat Hydropower Plant, reported english.khabarhub.com Jul 8.
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Experts were stated to have highlighted Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events, stressing the urgent need for improved early warning systems and cross-border cooperation to prevent such disasters in the future.
According to the english.khabarhub.com in another Jul 8 report, a permafrost collapse in Tibet, caused by incessant rain, triggered the devastating flood in Nepal’s Lhende River.
The headwaters of the Lhende River, known downstream as the Bhote Koshi in Nepal, lie in Tibet. A chunk of frozen terrain there suddenly collapsed into the river, causing a massive flood,” the report quoted Urken Chiring Tamang, ward chair of Gosainkunda-1, as saying.
“Although there hasn’t been heavy rain in Tibet, even minimal precipitation seems to have begun melting the frozen ground. There has been no visible landslide blocking the river on the Nepali side,” he has said.
Past studies show that 47 glacial lakes are at risk of bursting due to melting ice. Among them, 21 are in Nepal, one is in India, and 25 are in Tibet. Authorities in Nepal are unaware of the risk posed by the glacial lakes, noted the kathmandupost.com in another report Jul 9.