NEWS

With glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) posing a huge development challenge to the countries in the Himalayan belt, the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention yesterday said it would hold a special workshop to discuss the issue. The effort is based on the realisation that hazards in the Himalayan region were bound into a delicate relationship of cause and effect and together combined to increase risk in the entire region. It is to find answers to these problems that the UNDP would host a special assembly of the four affected Himalayan nations - India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Nepal. The meet would be held on January 20, 21 at Paro in Bhutan and would discuss responses on how nations could factor in GLOF risk reduction in their development projects and community level contingency plans. Senior functionaries from India, UN, NGOs and research scientists from the four project countries as also from UK, Switzerland and Thailand would attend the brainstorming session.