Nepal flood rescue efforts intensify as hundreds remain unaccounted for

Devastating floods near the border with China have killed at least 939 people in Nepal, while the number of missing in the country dropped to 3,925, its disaster authority said on Monday, 31 August, as rescue efforts entered a sixth day.

The Nepali Army has rescued 279 people from hydropower projects battered by last week’s Bhotekoshi floods, but hundreds of workers remain unaccounted for as rescuers scour damaged project sites, tunnels and river corridors for survivors.

The Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal (IPPAN), an umbrella body representing private-sector power developers, said on Monday that the whereabouts of 894 people working at 11 hydropower projects along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors remained unknown.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the Nepali Army had rescued 254 people from the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project and nine from the 5MW Mailung Khola Hydropower Project. Search teams were continuing to probe the tunnels of Upper Trishuli-1, where Nepali, South Korean and Chinese personnel were working together in a race against time.

IPPAN said 573 people associated with the 216MW Upper Trishuli-1 project remained out of contact, underscoring the scale of the disaster that swept through Nepal’s mountainous hydropower belt.

At the 111MW Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, two people were rescued, but a search of the project’s tunnel found no others. A joint team from the Nepali and Chinese armies entered the tunnel after fears that workers could have been trapped deep inside following the sudden rise of the Bhote Koshi River.

“The rescue team led by the Nepali Army has returned after searching the tunnel ... and finding no people inside,” the Prime Minister’s Secretariat said on Monday.

Rescue operations were also under way at the Langtang Khola and Chilime hydropower projects in Rasuwa. Nepali Army personnel, an Indian rescue team and Nepali workers were attempting to clear tunnel entrances blocked by debris and flood damage.

At the 60MW Upper Trishuli-3A Hydropower Project in Nuwakot, a 90-member force drawn from the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police was searching inside tunnels, assisted by personnel from the Nepal Electricity Authority.

Two people were rescued from the area of the 37MW Upper Trishuli-3B project, where the Army has deployed nine additional personnel, taking the total number involved in the operation to 31. The search began after a Chinese rescue team conducted a reconnaissance mission at the site.

Elsewhere in Nuwakot, rescuers pulled three people to safety from the Trishuli Hydropower Project. Four people were also rescued from a solar power project, while another four were brought out from the Devighat Hydropower Project.

The disaster has prompted an international rescue effort, with Indian and Chinese tunnel specialists arriving in Nepal at the government’s request to help reach workers feared trapped underground. In the shadow of towering mountains and swollen rivers, teams have been working amid mud, shattered infrastructure and unstable tunnels, confronting difficult conditions in their effort to bring people home.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), the death toll from the devastating floods stood at 939 as of Monday evening, while 3,925 people remained out of contact.

As rescue teams enter another day of painstaking searches, families across Nepal continue to wait for news of loved ones caught in one of the country’s deadliest recent flood disasters.

With agency inputs