IOM: Region 'particularly vulnerable' due to large populations and limited resources

Houses collapse along the banks of the Budhi Gandaki River in the Gorkha district of central Nepal after the river flooded on Wednesday (local time). [AFP]
Houses collapse along the banks of the Budhi Gandaki River in the Gorkha district of central Nepal after the river flooded on Wednesday (local time). [AFP]

Climate change could force up to 40 million people across South Asia to relocate by 2050, the International Organization for Migration warned.

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said in an interview on Friday during a visit to India that climate change is threatening livelihoods and driving forced displacement across South Asia, according to AFP.

Pope cited the devastating floods that struck Nepal in August, along with rising sea levels and droughts threatening housing and farmland. In the worst-case scenario, as many as 40.5 million people in South Asia could be forced to relocate by 2050, she warned.

"When you can no longer produce food and you can no longer feed your livestock, the likelihood of migration increases," Pope said. "The first response people have in that situation is to move."

The IOM said South Asian countries, including India, are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their large populations and limited resources.

Pope warned that there is a lack of urgency globally around the risks facing vulnerable societies, and that funding to help communities prepare for climate change remains insufficient.

However, the IOM said better data and AI could help South Asian countries identify risks before disasters strike.

"Advances in AI forecasting technology now allow us to predict with much greater accuracy which areas face the highest risk of forced displacement," Pope said, adding that combining weather forecasts with information about residents' livelihoods can help pinpoint where assistance is needed.

Massive floods that struck upstream in the Himalayan highlands on Aug. 26 killed more than 1,400 people and left around 6,000 missing across Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, which share a border.

The floods may have been triggered by the collapse of enormous glaciers and rock formations in the Himalayas due to climate change driven by global warming, experts have suggested.


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