The death toll from the devastating floods near the Nepal-China border has risen to at least 734, with thousands missing following Wednesday’s disaster. Rescue efforts are under way to locate more than 900 missing workers at hydropower projects in central Nepal. Authorities from Nepal and the Tibet region of China have put the total number of missing at just over 3,000, with some bodies washing up in neighboring India. A glacier collapse high in the Himalaya mountains in Nepal near the border with Tibet triggered Wednesday’s catastrophic flooding and landslides, burying villages and towns along the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi river systems. This unprecedented event has triggered a significant humanitarian crisis, demanding immediate and sustained international assistance.
Rescue efforts are focused on the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, where approximately 11 workers are missing. As of Sunday morning, around 933 people are missing or unaccounted for, according to Nepal’s Independent Power Producers’ Association, representing a significant portion of the affected population. The workers include citizens of Nepal, India, South Korea, and China. The extent of the missing individuals at each individual hydropower site remains unclear, with the government prioritizing the deployment of a rescue team, led by 62 Nepali Army personnel and 20 Armed Police Force Nepal and Nepal Police, to clear the entrance by removing debris and rubble. The team has been continuously deployed since late Friday, with adverse weather conditions persisting in the area. The initial deployment was limited to 82 personnel, with the army and police contributing significantly to the effort.
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, stated that Chinese authorities say the risk seems to have been reduced, but it has not disappeared. ‘They are closely monitoring the barrier lake, located one km upstream at the port of Gyirong and the border area,’ she said, adding that ‘authorities are confident that if the situation around the barrier lake should deteriorate, they will be able to give notice of about 30 minutes to rescuers below.’
The situation is particularly challenging in the Chilime Hydropower project in Rasuwa district, 133 km north of Kathmandu, where 133-megawatt hydropower is under operation. The government has evacuated thousands of people, including foreign nationals, with the help of the army and police, to higher ground. However, this evacuation has led to a shortage of available shelters and refrigerators, creating a critical shortage of space to store bodies.
Rojita Maharjan, executive director of Chilime Hydropower Company, told the Kathmandu Post, ‘We are working to mobilize a rock-climbing rescue team to reach the tunnel entrance and search operations, but with adverse weather conditions persisting in the area, the rescue efforts have become quite challenging.’
Chinese authorities in Tibet reported that 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries had died in Gyirong County as of Saturday evening. As of Sunday morning, 2,498 people remain missing in Nepal. These include 589 foreigners and 127 Nepali citizens travelling with them, 45 personnel from Nepal’s army, 27 from Nepal’s police and 13 from the armed police force.
Al Jazeera’s Samer Allawi reported that getting a picture of the full scale of the devastation on the Chinese side of the border is difficult because foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the area. ‘We are completely reliant on the government and state media,’ she said, adding that ‘the government says teams have desperately been searching the worst-hit area of the port of Gyirong since teams arrived there late on Friday after days of trekking through the mountains,’ and that they have ‘searched at least 90,000 square metres using life monitoring equipment, search dogs and drones.’
Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai stated that 19,000 security personnel and 16 helicopters have been mobilized in the search and rescue operations. Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, said the government has requested specialist help from India and China to ‘fill gaps’ in its rescue operations.
Nepali journalist Adhikari accused world leaders of not prioritizing the threats posed by the climate crisis. ‘This catastrophe is not Nepal’s fault. The country is paying the price for how world leaders have been dealing with climate change,’ he said. ‘Nepal has had floods and disasters like earthquakes before, but I have never seen anything like what happened on Wednesday. Entire families have been swept away. People are devastated and have lost everything – their property, their security, their lifelines. They have no homes to return to in the flood-affected areas.’
China has mobilized 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220 million yuan ($32.7m) to support relief efforts, using heavy-lift drones and helicopters to airdrop equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers near the border crossing.
International aid has also arrived from the UN, the Red Cross Federation, Australia, India, South Korea, and the US. The situation remains critical, with ongoing challenges in reaching remote areas and the urgent need for continued international support.
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Source: Al Jazeera
