Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: The death toll from flash floods in Nepal rose to 797 on Sunday with over 3,000 people still “missing,” its disaster authority said as rescue efforts entered the fifth day.
Chinese state media had earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing. Bodies have been recovered from eight affected districts as rescuers race against time to search for those missing and rescue those stranded.
The rescuers in Nepal and China battled through leg-sucking mud, as well as the threat of rising rivers and a newly formed lake, to search for thousands missing after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayas, engulfing entire villages.
Nepal said it had begun the grim task of burying some of the hundreds of bodies on Sunday, after first taking DNA samples so that families could later reclaim them and perform traditional funeral rites once they had been identified.
According to a government update reported by local media, three relief camps have been established in Rasuwa and 15 in Nuwakot, while temporary accommodation has been arranged in schools and public and community buildings for about 3,500 displaced people.
Nepali rescuers drilled, dug and used explosives on Sunday in a bid to reach dozens of hydropower workers believed trapped in tunnels swamped by flood debris, racing against time to find survivors. Rescue operations entered their fifth day since the floods hit the Nepal-China border. Teams battled rain, rising rivers and treacherous conditions at the disaster sites.
Nepal’s Government said more than 100 workers may still be trapped alive inside multiple tunnels at hydropower projects, with key rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites in a Himalayan valley. The Nepali army inserted a pipe into one of the tunnels at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site late on Saturday and started sending air through it, Minister Sudan Gurung said.
But overnight rain and rising river waters hampered rescue efforts at that site, and Nepal’s disaster authorities urged rescue teams on Sunday to exercise caution. Those trapped were among 933 missing workers from hydropower projects on the rivers where the torrent of icy debris swept down. India, which has extensive experience in such rescues, has sent an 11-person specialised team. China has also sent a nine-person tunnel team to help.
Hampering rescue operations on Sunday was the formation of a new lake near the Tibet border following a landslide 2.8 kilometres from a drained lake that in previous days had threatened rescue work. After the landslide on Saturday evening “a new barrier lake is now forming”, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Rescue personnel near the Gyirong border port had been moved to safer areas while the Ministry of Emergency Management convened experts to assess and analyse the situation, CCTV said. Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said. “We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support.”
At an army base in the Nepali town of Bidur, a key rescue hub, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall. “I have come here looking for my son,” said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. “He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can’t find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything.”
The Australian parents of a woman reported missing in devastating floods said they were “elated” and relieved after their daughter was found safe and sound. Cara Severino, 24, was found “safe and well” on Friday, her parents said. Among those not accounted for are 42 Australians, many of whom were pilgrims visiting holy sites.