By Navin Singh KhadkaEnvironment reporter, BBC World Service
The lake had its water levels lowered by over 3m - DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND METEOROLOGY
Nepal's army says it has finished draining a dangerous glacial lake near Mount Everest to a safe level.
The Imja glacial lake, at nearly 5,000m (16,400ft) high, was in danger of flooding downstream settlements, trekking trails and bridges.
The lake, which was originally 149m deep in places, has had its water levels lowered by 3.4m after months of pain-staking work, officials say.
Imja is one of thousands of glacial lakes in the Himalayas.
Many of the lakes are said to be filling up fast because of accelerated melting of glaciers amid rising global temperatures.
Last year's earthquake in Nepal is also feared to have further destabilised Lake Imja.
DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND METEOROLOGY
Image caption
Lake Imja is one of thousands of lakes in the Himalayas
The military said the project to make it safe was the highest drainage project of its kind, with army personnel and Sherpas working for six months to construct an outlet to gradually release the water.
After the outlet was constructed, nearly 4m cubic metres of water was released - in a process that took two months.
Top Khatri, the project's manager with the department of hydrology and meteorology, told the BBC the process would now be applied to other lakes.
"It was a pilot project that we completed without any unfortunate incident and now this model will be replicated to reduce risks in other glacial lakes as well," Mr Khatri said.
DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND METEOROLOGYImage captionTeams had to work in tough conditions at high altitudes
The project was also challenging because of the heavy snow and the dangers of working at high altitude.
Officials said teams could only work safely for a few hours each day.
"We suffered from some level of stress and fatigue as we were working at this high altitude and extreme location," Lt-Col Bharat Shrestha, who headed the army team, told the BBC from the Everest region.
"In the beginning, a few people had to be evacuated as they suffered from high altitude sickness but gradually we all acclimatised ourselves to this place."
The draining of the lake is a part of a UN project to help Nepal deal with the impact of climate change. The UN provided nearly $3m in funding to lower the lake's water levels.
Early warning systems have also been installed for communities downstream.
However, many local Sherpas feel too much attention has been given to Imja, with alarmist media reports panicking locals, while the risks posted by other glacial lakes are ignored by officials.
"We live in fear that we might be surprisingly hit by floods from glacial lakes that are becoming dangerous but have not received any attention," said Nimji Sherpa, a leader in Thamo village.
Glacial lakes have broken their banks in Nepal more than 20 times since the early 1960s. Three of those incidents have been in and around the Everest region.
IN THE TENGGER DESERT, CHINA — This desert, called the Tengger, lies on the southern edge of the massive Gobi Desert, not far from major cities like Beijing. The Tengger is growing.
For years, China’s deserts spread at an annual rate of more than 1,300 square miles. Many villages have been lost. Climate change and human activities have accelerated desertification. China says government efforts to relocate residents, plant trees and limit herding have slowed or reversed desert growth in some areas. But the usefulness of those policies is debated by scientists, and deserts are expanding in critical regions.
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Nearly 20 percent of China is desert, and drought across the northern region is getting worse. One recent estimate said China had 21,000 square miles more desert than what existed in 1975 — about the size of Croatia. As the Tengger expands, it is merging with two other deserts to form a vast sea of sand that could become uninhabitable.
Jiali lives in an area called Alxa League, where the government has relocated about 30,000 people, who are called “ecological migrants,” because of desertification.
Across northern China, generations of families have made a living herding animals on the edge of the desert. Officials say that along with climate change, overgrazing is contributing to the desert’s growth. But some experiments suggest moderate grazing may actually mitigate the effects of climate change on grasslands, and China’s herder relocation policies could be undermining that.
Officials have given Jiali and her family a home in a village about six miles from Swan Lake, the oasis where they run a tourist park. To get them to move and sell off their herd of more than 70 sheep, 30 cows and eight camels, the officials have offered an annual subsidy equivalent to $1,500 for each of her parents and $1,200 for a grandmother who lives with them.
Residents who live on the edge of the deserts try to limit the steady march of the sand. Along with local governments, they plant trees in an effort to block the wind and stabilize the soil.
Many people in this area are from families that fled Minqin, at the western end of the Tengger Desert, during China’s Great Famine from 1958 to 1962, when tens of millions died.
Guo Kaiming, 40, a farmer who also manages a tourist park at the edge of the Tengger Desert, planted rows of trees by a new cross-desert highway in June.
Local governments in desert regions began relocating
people away from the encroaching sands decades ago.
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But China’s densely populated areas are pushing
toward the deserts, as the deserts grow toward the cities.
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Storms of wind-driven sand have become increasingly
frequent and intense, reaching Beijing and other
large cities. “We dread the sandstorms,” Ms. Du said.
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Mr. Guo took saplings that the government had left
behind after it completed a tree planting operation.
He said he was not ready to join the climate
refugees. He has his corn and wheat fields,
lus incom
Last year, the company that operates
the park paid students to build seven
giant sand sculptures as its centerpiece.
But strong desert winds steadily eroded them.
“They are all a mess now,” Mr.
Guo said. “The wind is fierce.”
“It has messed up everything.”
The government encourages farmers like Mr. Guo because it says agriculture can help reclaim land from the desert. Officials offer subsidies: Mr. Guo gets $600 per year for “grassland ecological protection.”
But farming is also becoming more difficult. Huang Chunmei, who grew up in the town of Tonggunao’er and now farms there, said the water table was two meters, or about six feet, below ground during her childhood, and “now, you have to dig four or five meters.”
Ms. Huang planted more than 200 trees on her own last spring, in the hope that they would help block sandstorms and hold back the sand.
Ms. Huang, 38, grows corn and
tomatoes, some in greenhouse structures.
“The soil is not as soft or good as it was
before,” she said. “We use more fertilizer now.”
Ms. Huang and her husband have sent their 14-year-old
daughter to a boarding school in a nearby city.
“I don’t want my girl to return,” she said.
“The sand and wind make life tough here.”
“We’ll see what she wants to
do when she finishes school.”
About 17 percent of the population in Alxa League are ethnic Mongolians, whose lives and livelihoods have long been tied to the herding the government is trying to halt.
Mengkebuyin, 42, and his wife, Mandula, 41, grow corn and sunflowers, but their 200 sheep provide most of their income: They sell the meat to a hotel restaurant in a nearby city.
The sheep graze in the desert, where grass is growing scarce. They roam by his old family home, near the shores of a lake that dried up years ago. Mengkebuyin and his wife maintain the old home but do not stay for long periods.
Local governments in desert regions began relocating plus in
Last year, the company that operates
the park paid students to build seven
giant sand sculptures as its centerpiece.
But strong desert winds steadily eroded them.
“They are all a mess now,” Mr.
Guo said. “The wind is fierce.”
“It has messed up everything.”
Local governments in desert regions began relocating
Last year, the company that operates
the park paid students to build seven
giant sand sculptures as its centerpiece.
But strong desert winds steadily eroded them.
“They are all a mess now,” Mr.
Guo said. “The wind is fierce.”
“It has messed up everything.”
Ms. Huang, 38, grows corn and
tomatoes, some in greenhouse structures.
“The soil is not as soft or good as it was
before,” she said. “We use more fertilizer now.”
Ms. Huang and her husband have sent their 14-year-old
daughter to a boarding school in a nearby city.
“I don’t want my girl to return,” she said.
“The sand and wind make life tough here.”
“We’ll see what she wants to
do when she finishes school.”
Mengkebuyin and Mandula have decided that they want their 16-year-old daughter to live and work in a city.
Four generations of Mengkebuyin’s family lived by the lake in a thriving community. But gradually, everyone left.
