Arya News - Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal argued that China, the US and India are the world’s largest greenhouse emitters, and therefore they should compensate Nepal for extensive damage caused by last week’s flash floods in Bhotekoshi river.
NEW DELHI – Nepal has sought compensation from the United States, China and India for the catastrophic flash floods that swept away homes, bridges and everything that came on its way across three districts and leaving more than 1,000 people dead.
Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said that the post disaster aid should not be treated as “charity” by these countries but a “moral liability”.
He argued that the China, US and India are the world’s largest greenhouse emitters and therefore they should compensate Nepal for extensive damage caused by last week’s flash floods in Bhotekoshi river.
“The major industrial emitters — such as China, which is the world’s top emitter, the United States at number two, and India at number three — have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal,” he said.
Khanal further states that Nepal is shifting its diplomatic stance from seeking “aid” to “justice and compensation”.
“This is not a matter of charity; it is a matter of legal and moral liability.”
According to him, Nepal contributes “negligible” amount of greenhouse gas emmission but paying the ultimate price for a global crisis that it didn’t create.
“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create. The rapid melting of glaciers and these catastrophic mountain tsunamis are direct consequences of global climate change,” he added.
The flood struck on August 26, tearing through the Nepal-Tibet border region. Experts, including the United States Geological Survey, traced the cause to a glacial collapse and debris flow in the Langtang area, not an earthquake as first suspected. The resulting surge entered the Lhende Khola, which feeds into the Bhotekoshi and then the Trishuli River. Water levels in the Trishuli reportedly rose by nearly 9 meters in just 30 minutes.
Scientists estimated the flood wave moved at speeds close to 193 kilometers per hour during its initial descent, covering nearly 14 miles in under seven minutes.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the Bhotekoshi flood in Rasuwa, Nepal has reached 1,127 as of 5 am, Wednesday. The breakdown by district includes 45 in Rasuwa, 155 in Nuwakot, 59 in Dhading, 348 in Chitwan, 66 in Gorkha, 38 in Tanahun, 217 in Nawalparasi East, 190 in Nawalparasi West, and 9 in India.
Nepal Police say postmortem procedures have been completed for 1,113 of the recovered bodies. Another 95 bodies have already been handed over to family members.