Back to news
22 Jun 2023 | Cryosphere

Flood risk rising despite below-average monsoon

3 mins Read

70% Complete
Extremely dry(< -3), Very dry(-2 to -3), Dry(-1 to -2), Near normal (1 to -1), Wet(1 to 2), Very wet(2 to 3), Extremely wet(>3)
Key messages
Flood risk rising
Extremely dry(< -3), Very dry(-2 to -3), Dry(-1 to -2), Near normal (1 to -1), Wet(1 to 2), Very wet(2 to 3), Extremely wet(>3)

Figure 1: The four-month precipitation outlook from May to August 2023 indicates that near-normal conditions will persist in most of the basins except the Ganges basin where relatively some deficit is expected. A minor surplus is expected of the lower parts of the Indus basin. Source: https://lib.icimod.org/record/36290

 

June–September are crucial months for the HKH, with the monsoon rains accounting for 80% of the region’s annual precipitation. The increasing unpredictability of the season, however, is causing chains of disastrous events, leaving countries in the region struggling to adapt and respond. We have had several recent incidences where a single event has triggered disastrous impacts – the 2022 Pakistan floods, which led to 1730 deaths and economic losses tallying over USD 15 billion being the most recent.

 

The time to act is now.

For further information, please contact our inhouse experts:

Manish Shrestha: shrestha.manish@icimod.org

Pradeep Dangol: pradeep.dangol@icimod.org

 

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up
18 Feb 2021 Cryosphere
Studying glaciers during the pandemic

Context A small team of researchers from ICIMOD and the French National Research Institute (IRD), completed the annual field expedition to ...

24 Sep 2019 KDKH
Country chapter for the Koshi disaster risk reduction knowledge hub to be developed

A recent UNESCAP disaster risk-focused report has identified transboundary river basins in South Asia as disaster hotspots. One such area ...

16 May 2024 Media Advisory
Southwest monsoon outlook 2024: With region set for rising temperatures and above normal rain early warning an urgent priority in hugely exposed region

Searing heat: The Government of Bangladesh was forced to close schools in April when temperatures rose ...

6 Mar 2020 Gender in Koshi
Thinking beyond Each for Equal

When I opened the newspaper in early February, a news article immediately caught my eye – “

3 Sep 2020 CBFEWS
At the ready for floods in the Koshi: CBFEWS orientation trainings during the pandemic

Even as communities reel from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of floods is omnipresent. Koshi River drains ...

11 Feb 2019 Water
2nd Regional Upper Indus Basin Network (UIB-N) Workshop

Glaciers in the upper reaches of the Indus River basin are an important source of freshwater. However, as climate change ...

19 Feb 2016 Gender in Koshi
What do youth have to do with women’s participation?

An age old question that plagues our society is: where are the women? In my recent field visit to Sinduli, ...