Death toll from Nepal and China floods reaches 1,019

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China has reached 1,019, and more than 4,400 people remain missing as rescue crews work to reach communities cut off by the disaster.

In an update on Tuesday, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) increased the number of deaths from 987 to 1,003, with 3,916 people missing, including 583 foreigners.

Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people still missing, including 261 foreigners, in their most recent update on Sunday.

The disaster hit on August 26, beginning with a chain of events high in the Himalayas, when a glacial collapse sent large amounts of rock, ice, and meltwater into valleys below, triggering powerful floods downstream.

Scientists studying satellite imagery said the collapse appears to have involved the failure of bedrock beneath a glacier.

Hundreds of workers are feared to be trapped in tunnels at several devastated hydropower stations in Nepal that have become the focus of rescue efforts.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah said 279 workers had been rescued from hydropower projects so far, where authorities had initially estimated that more than 900 people were missing.

More than 11,000 people have been rescued across the affected region, and power and communication lines have been restored in some areas, he added.

“Thousands of citizens have lost their homes, families, loved ones, and property,” Shah said on social media.

“The government understands the immense pain they are enduring. The path ahead is to support them through this suffering and help them return to normal life through rehabilitation.”

Rescue teams had managed to restore road networks to Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected districts, facilitating rescue operations and the distribution of relief material, Shah said.

Police official Bipin Regmi said a search team recovered 24 bodies from a house in Betrabati village in Nuwakot district.

“We are reaching new areas and recovering bodies,” Regmi told the Reuters news agency.

Aid worth more than $42m has poured into the country after the disaster, Shah said, and the government expects the contributions to increase.

Neighbours India and China are helping with rescue efforts, including building Bailey bridges to reach remote affected areas.

Pictures and videos shared by rescue teams showed earth-moving equipment digging and shovelling mud and rocks under lights in the dark of the night as workers watched.

Soldiers used torchlight in a big pit they had created to look for space to get into one tunnel.

There has been a boom in hydropower projects in Nepal since the turn of the century, as the mountainous country sought to take advantage of its Himalayan water resources to address chronic domestic power shortages and exploit prospects for selling electricity to its southern neighbour, India.

Hydropower projects in Nepal’s mountains need tunnels to carry water through the steep terrain, allowing developers to exploit the sharp elevation drop between Himalayan rivers and powerhouses to generate electricity.