Hope is rising amid Nepal’s flood devastation as officials say dozens of workers trapped underground at the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant could still be alive a week after deadly flash floods tore through the region.
“In Rasuwagadhi, we think 46 people are trapped in a room-like structure in the tunnel,” Amhsu Kiran Shahi, a board member of the Nepal Electricity Authority, told Reuters.
“We are very confident that they must be alive after one week because … they have food and water over there in the building.”
Authorities have already pulled 279 people to safety from hydropower projects overwhelmed by an unprecedented torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris. Officials say the disaster was triggered by a glacial collapse near Nepal’s border with China.
But the search remains vast: at least 639 more people were still missing, some believed to be stranded inside tunnels connected to the hydropower sites, as Nepali, Indian and Chinese rescue teams dig on in hopes of reaching survivors.
Residents walk past a damaged house in Devighat, Nuwakot
‘Going in again’
The Rasuwagadhi Hydroelectric Project, a 111-megawatt facility in the badly hit Rasuwa district, sits in a mountain valley about 5km from Nepal’s border with China.
“This is the only project where it’s possible to walkthrough the tunnel. The army tried doing that three days ago, but they didn’t find the room,” Mr Shahi said. “We are going in again.”
Search teams are also pursuing reports of survivors trapped in tunnels at other sites. According to Nepal army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet, powerhouses often include spaces and rooms where people stay, raising the possibility that some may have reached pockets of shelter.
Drone footage shows scale of Nepal flood damage
At the Upper Trishuli 3A facility — another project battered by the floods — rescuers needed almost six days to even locate the tunnels because thick mud buried access points, Mr Shahi said.
“We are expecting (survivors) in there because we are told there is a dry space inside. We are trying to break into the tunnel now,” he said.
“We are using every technology available in Nepal right now, and we are taking help from the Indians, Chinese, Koreans. We have experts from Australia too.”
The sheer volume of material swept downstream has complicated every stage of the response. A preliminary estimate by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) put the debris at at least 2.2 million tonnes — including parts of buildings, rocks and sediment — roughly the equivalent of six Empire State buildings.
Relatives take part in the symbolic cremation of four members of their family who remain missing
Funerals for those missing a week on
Across Nepal, families have begun holding symbolic funeral ceremonies to “liberate the souls” of relatives who vanished when floodwaters swept away villages and homes a week ago.
Emergency teams have recovered more than 1,000 bodies, and nearly 4,500 people are missing.
After days spent combing shelters and mortuaries for any sign of loved ones, some relatives have started to lose hope and have begun conducting last rites.
So far, rescuers have recovered only bodies from tunnels clogged by sludge. Even so, teams continue digging, drilling and blasting through debris, trying to open a route to any survivors who may still be sealed inside.
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said he continued to believe some of the thousands missing could still be alive.
“Miracles do happen,” he said in an interview. “At this point, I do not want to completely give up hope.”
The aftermath of the flooding along the Bhotekoshi River
‘Global responsibility’
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah called the catastrophe “a serious indication that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change”.
“Climate change is a global contribution, and disaster response is also a global responsibility,” he added in a post on Facebook.
Scientists say the Himalayas — the world’s highest mountain range — are warming quickly as global temperatures rise, speeding up glacier melt.
Glaciers across the broader Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges serve as a critical water source for about 240 million people living in mountainous areas, and for another 1.65 billion people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.
As the country reels, anger is mounting over the scale of destruction in Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million.
Nepal has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, yet it is among the countries suffering the consequences.
Nepal has warned reconstruction costs could run into the “billions of dollars”.
The economy was already under strain, leaving limited resources to respond to a disaster of this magnitude.
Highlighting the breadth of the damage on both sides of the border, Chinese state media said road access to hard-hit Gyirong Port in Tibet had only finally been restored today after “days of round-the-clock repair work”.
With mortuaries overflowing in Nepal, authorities have buried hundreds of unidentified bodies after DNA sampling.
Nepal said 1,114 bodies had been recovered, while 3,916 people remained missing.
Two Irish citizens are among the hundreds of foreigners missing, taking the total toll from the 26 August disaster to 1,130 dead, and 4,462 missing.
China’s state media reported 16 dead and 546 missing.
In China, foreign journalists are restricted from reporting in Tibet and Chinese authorities have a tight grip on information sources in the region.
Tibetan advocacy groups in exile have questioned China’s account of the disaster, but China insists that the “release of information has been open, transparent and timely”.
