Rising water levels in Kenya’s Lake Naivasha have submerged large parts of Kihoto estate, displacing about 7,000 people and forcing the use of tourist boats for evacuation as access roads and ground floors are inundated. Local officials report that the lake has been rising for more than a decade, with recent levels overtopping informal embankments and flooding masonry houses, pit latrines and septic systems. Geotechnical concerns now centre on saturated foundations, slope instability on reclaimed lakebed plots, and contamination risks from submerged sanitation infrastructure.

Mount Semeru in East Java has been raised to the highest alert level after entering a new phase of intense activity, with ash columns reported above several kilometres and villages blanketed in thick deposits. Authorities have ordered mass evacuations from settlements on the volcano’s flanks and along key river valleys that previously channelled lahars in the 2021 eruption. For geotechnical and civil teams, priority issues are ash loading on lightweight roofs, rapid assessment of slope stability on ash-covered road embankments, and lahar risk to bridges and culverts.

A major landslide on the 33‑kilometre Khanh Le Pass in central Viet Nam buried a passenger bus late on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 19. The mountain road, cut into steep terrain with deeply weathered residual soils, is already known for frequent rockfalls and debris slides during intense rainfall. The incident highlights urgent needs for detailed slope stability assessment, improved drainage, and engineered protection measures such as retaining structures, rockfall barriers, and real‑time monitoring on this and similar high‑risk corridors.