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Government support for the situation in Nepal

On 14 October 2026 there will be a debate in Westminster Hall on “Government support for the situation in Nepal”, from 9.30 to 11.00. It will be led by Matt Rodda (Labour).

Floods in August 2026

Extensive flooding in August 2026 is estimated to have killed at least 1,455 people in Nepal and 43 people in China. Large numbers of people are still missing.

What were the effects of the flood?

On 26 August 2026 a massive flash flood affecting the Lende Kholā and Trishuli̇̄ Kholā rivers caused extensive damage and killed thousands of people, mostly in Nepal. The Lende Kholā river originates in Tibet and flows south into Nepal, joining the Trishuli̇̄ Kholā river near the Tibet-Nepal border. Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts were among the worst affected areas.

The latest estimate released by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority on 5 October 2026, said that 1,455 were confirmed dead, 5,285 people were missing and 13,795 had been rescued. In early September Chinese authorities reported that 43 people had been confirmed dead and 519 others remained missing after the flood struck Gyirong Port on the Tibet-Nepal border.

A September 2026 Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) produced by the Nepalese government estimated a total damage cost of around US$2.7 billion (PDF), with physical damage at $1.81 billion and economic losses at $883 million. The RDNA estimated that total recovery needs, which include reconstruction costs and resilience measures to mitigate against future risks, were $4.7 billion.

What caused the flood?

Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) have said they believe the flood was caused by the collapse of a glacier in Lāntān National Park, Nepal, near the border with Tibet. The USGS said the glacial debris contained water and ice that rapidly melted:

picking up more material and water as it flowed downslope in the existing stream and river channels, creating a fast-moving, far-travelled landslide and flood laden with boulders and other rubble.

Chinese government geologist, Guo Zhaocheng, said the debris flow and ensuing mudslide “travelled at about 50 metres (165 feet) per second, leaving people little time to react, and extended for more than 20 km (12 miles)”.

It is not clear, however, what caused the glacier to collapse. 

Nepal’s Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, has linked the glacial collapse to climate change. On 24 September 2026 he told the UN General Assembly that the disaster “was not just a local tragedy, it was a warning to the world”. He said a changing climate was destabilising the Himalayan ecosystem.

Some scientific studies have also suggested that climate change played a role in the flood, among other causes, including a 2015 earthquake that struck near the mountain containing the affected glacier. An August 2026 article in Nature India said that landslide dam and glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more frequent “as warming destabilises high-altitude ice and permafrost”. The article also said that although early warning systems using remote sensors, cameras and satellite monitoring have been piloted in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and parts of China, their coverage remains “sparse”.

A study by the World Weather Attribution group of researchers said that “Climate change is […] best understood as a destabilising factor acting on a pre-existing geological predisposition, rather than the fundamental cause of the failure”. The group also said they unable to assess whether the event would have occurred without human-induced climate change as “such a direct attribution requires additional evidence linking atmospheric conditions to subsurface temperatures, fracture-water pressures and the mechanical evolution of the slope”.

UN flash appeal

The UN launched a flash appeal on 4 September to support the response. It is seeking to assist around 85,000 people across 19,300 households in six districts of the country. Around US$49.6 million is being requested.

UK Government response to the 2026 floods

Speaking on 27 August 2026, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, said the UK would do “everything we can to support British nationals impacted” and was in touch with the Nepalese Government to offer support. The Minister for the Indo-Pacific region, Baroness Winterton, visited Nepal in September.

Funding and staff deployment to Nepal

The UK response has included new funding and deployment of staff:

• £5 million in aid. This will support UN, Red Cross and non-governmental organisation interventions (announced on 27 August). The breakdown includes:
  • £1 million through Start Fund Nepal to help local organisations deliver lifesaving aid;
  • £3 million through the UN to meet urgent humanitarian needs including shelter, WASH and Protection;
  • up to £250,000 to deploy UK humanitarian experts to strengthen coordination and the effective delivery of assistance (see below)
• The use of a rapid deployment team to support UK national and their families, as well as to coordinate assistance with the local authorities (announced on 28 August)

The government has also highlighted its contributions to the Asia Development Bank (£120 million from 2025 to 2028) and the World Bank (£1.98 billion from 2025 to 2028), both of which work in Nepal.

In September, the government said it had not received any requests for support from China.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) also published a guide for the public on What you can do to help, 31 August 2026.

Assessment of further need and reconstruction

The Nepalese Government has estimated that reconstruction costs will be between US$4 and $5 billion – equal to around a tenth of its economy.

It has sought support from the UN Loss and Damage Fund (see the Library briefing for an introduction). However, the fund has not yet disbursed any money and does not have enough resources to meet the value of the requests it has received.

In September, the UK Government said it believes there is a “significant risk of further flooding in the high-mountain terrain along the Nepal-China border throughout the remainder of this year's monsoon season”, though the risk will reduce in drier months (October to December).

The government has said the UK has the “science, business and political capacity” to help Nepal “build back differently” and has set out wider support it has provided to help Nepal’s resilience:

This support builds on the UK’s longstanding contribution to strengthening Nepal’s resilience to climate-related disasters, with more than £100 million provided over the last 15 years. UK-supported institutions, including Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority and humanitarian logistics systems, are playing a central role in the current response. British science, research and technical expertise have also helped Nepal prepare for and manage natural disasters over many years, including through Met Office support on forecasting and work by Durham, Northumbria and Edinburgh Universities on early warning, contingency planning and glacier change.

As of September, the government said conversations on further UK support were “ongoing” and it would keep further support “under review”.

Trends in UK aid to Nepal

While more aid was announced in response to the 2026 floods, UK aid to Nepal is falling over the next three years.

Plans from 2026/27

In February 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK aid budget will be cut from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income by 2027 to help fund an increase in national defence spending. UK aid to Nepal is not one of the areas of protected spending.

In July 2026, the FCDO announced that its planned bilateral aid to Nepal will fall from £46 million in 2025/26 to £5 million in 2028/29. Spending will fall gradually, standing at £23 million in 2026/27 and £12 million in 2027/28.

Recent levels of UK aid to Nepal

UK bilateral aid to Nepal peaked in 2014, at about £112 million. As the chart below shows, in the years since then, the amount of aid provided has generally decreased, with particularly sharp decreases in 2021 and 2022 (as the total UK aid budget was cut from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%).

Source: FCDO, Statistics on International Development: final UK ODA spend 2025, 17 September 2026, underlying database, and previous editions

UK aid was provided to Nepal for various different sectors, the largest of which were “government and civil society” and health. Humanitarian aid was also significant in some years, particularly following the earthquake in 2015.

Some of the largest individual aid projects to Nepal in recent years have focused on health. In particular, the Nepal Health Sector Programme III spent nearly £102 million between 2016/17 and 2025/26.

These figures do not include aid funded from the core budgets of multilateral organisations, such as UN agencies. The FCDO estimates that UK aid supported a total of £364 million in multilateral assistance to Nepal between 2017 and 2024, or about £46 million per year on average.¹ This is separate from the bilateral aid it provided during these years.

UK policy priorities

In 2023, the UK Government said that Nepal and the UK had a “strong development partnership” and the UK would be transitioning to supporting Nepal in ways “beyond traditional aid and built on shared interests”.

Priority areas for the UK included supporting Nepal’s:

• resilience to climate change and implementing its inclusive development plan, set out in the country’s Periodic Plan (PDF)
• access to international financing for infrastructure and businesses. This includes via British Investment Partnerships and the UK’s development finance institution, British International Investment.
• federal political system
• addressing of barriers to economic growth and sustainable development

In 2025, the UK Government said it prioritised certain areas in its Nepal aid spending as the UK aid budget is reduced. This included supporting an “inclusive economic transformation”, building resilience to disasters and climate change, infrastructure development, and social services.

Current aid programmes in Nepal can be found on the FCDO’s Development Tacker page for the country. Note shown budgets are “live” and subject to change. Active programmes include:

• Climate action for a resilient Asia: to support planning for climate change
• Green Growth Nepal: to increase investment in green industries

Resilience, Adaptation and Inclusion in Nepal (RAIN) Programme: to support adaption and to help raise climate finance.