Scientists still don’t know what caused the glacier collapse but that hasn’t stopped a torrent of claims about Chinese construction
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenVictoria BelaPublished: 7:58pm, 28 Aug 2026To scientists, the cause of this week’s deadly flash flood on the border between China and Nepal is clear: a glacier high on the Nepal side of the Himalayan range collapsed, sending catastrophic amounts of water and debris downstream.Initial uncertainty over the cause of the event fuelled a wave of misinformation on social media, some of which pinned the blame for the event on Chinese-built infrastructure in the region.
But a war of information over China’s activities in the region continued to brew online even after Beijing and Kathmandu agreed on the scientific analysis.
When news of the flood broke, social media users began to speculate whether the cause of the event was natural or the result of human activity, with suggestions that the disaster had originated from the Chinese side of the border.
Some posts claimed that the flood was caused by the collapse of a Chinese dam in Tibet, while others blamed it on mega infrastructure projects in the region.
The social media account Nepal Correspondence, which claims to be a Nepal-based platform for investigative journalism, said in a post on Wednesday that the flash flood was caused by Chinese construction in the Himalayas.
“This is not only a purposeful ecological disaster but is cruel too,” the post read.
