Bagnolet:- La Via Campesina stands with the people of Nepal in this hour of grief. On the morning of 26 August, a massive flood came down the Bhote Koshi and the Trishuli without any warning, destroying villages and market towns in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading along the Trishuli corridor. Nepal’s disaster authority says a glacier collapsed on the border and blocked the river.
As of the morning of 28 August, more than 450 people have been reported dead, several hundred severely injured, and nearly 2,000 people are still missing. No agency has yet published how many people have been displaced, and the actual count of missing and dead is expected to rise further.
The households swept away included those cultivating the riverbanks and running markets along the river. They have lost their homes, their standing crops, their animals, their seed, their tools and their land.
At least 41 motorable bridges and around 40 kilometres of road have been washed away. Six hydropower stations are damaged and power is out across several districts. Preliminary government figures put road and bridge damage alone at around Rs 200 billion.
UNICEF says more than 17,000 children are affected. A lake has formed behind the blockage and is rising; authorities warn it may burst soon.
We are moved by the solidarity and collective spirit shown by the people of Nepal in this difficult time. We salute the students, workers, peasants and our own members in the All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPFA) working in the affected districts, and every rescuer risking their life in that valley.
Nepal’s latest tragedy is another reminder of a climate crisis it did little to create. Industrialized economies produced most historical greenhouse-gas emissions, while Nepal has contributed very little yet faces severe losses. In the Himalayas, warming is accelerating glacier melt and expanding dangerous glacial lakes, increasing the risk of floods and landslides that threaten lives, homes, roads and hydropower.
Nepal’s glaciers are shrinking, glacial lakes are multiplying, and the country still faces a major funding gap for protection. That is the real question of historical responsibility: those who caused the most emissions should carry the greatest share of the cost of repair, adaptation and loss-and-damage support. Polluters must pay.
We are calling for the fastest possible rescue and relief, for full support to the Government of Nepal in this work, and for the international community to stand with Nepal now – with people and with resources.
For farming families, we ask that relief and compensation reach tenant, landless and unregistered cultivators who hold no land papers; that seed reach them before the winter planting; that farm loans be suspended; and that early warning systems and shared river information across the border become a right, not a favour.
And to the beloved people of Nepal: your grief is our grief, your struggle is our struggle.
Globalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope!