Peru: Climate Change Raises Risk of Devastating Flood at Lake

Scientists say a glacial lake in Peru's Cordillera Blanca is a ticking time-bomb: glacial meltwater exacerbated by climate change is making the risk of a catastrophic and sudden flood increasingly high, The Guardian reports.

RELATED:
As Mexico Was Busy Celebrating World Cup Win, Gov't Approved Water Privatization Decrees

With Lake Palcacocha nearly overflowed, flood wave modeling by the University of Texas showed that a breakaway chunk of glacier falling into the lake could trigger a 30-meter wave and massive landslide into an area where about 50,000 people currently live.

“According to authorities' estimates, even if you were able to warn the people, there could still be about 20,000 fatalities," Noah Walker-Crawford, a social anthropologist, told The Guardian.

The lake has unleashed disaster before: in 1941, a glacier piece fell into the lake, causing a landslide that killed about 1,800 people. The area is now much more densely populated than it was eight decades ago, and climate change has significantly raised the risk of a catastrophe.

The rising lake level is currently being mitigated by 10 tubes pumping out water as it rises.

Glacier calving has been a regular occurrence in recent years, however none have been large enough to send waves over the dam. In 2017, a calving event led to three-meter-high waves that damaged the flood mitigation system.

Peru's glaciers are a key source of irrigation water for farmers in the region and, as they disappear, a water crisis is perhaps on the cards. Unseasonal melting of the region that contains 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers has already affected harvests.