Flash floods in Nepal trap hundreds of hydropower workers in tunnels, death toll rises to 939

Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, ​the ⁠country’s disaster ​management authority has said.

The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ​and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 939 people, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. More than 4,400 are missing on the two sides of the border.

About 500 of the missing hydropower workers at projects damaged by the flooding in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts are thought to be trapped in tunnels built to control the flow of water.

As rescue efforts drag on, experts fear the chances of finding survivors in tunnels are diminishing as oxygen levels fall.

Some workers called for help when flooding started on Wednesday and those who had managed to escape tunnels said many of their colleagues were still trapped, said Mohan Kumar Dangi, the president of the Nepal Independent Power Producers’ Association.

Rescue efforts have been complicated by difficult terrain, persistently high flood waters and difficult weather. With more than 40 bridges destroyed, rescuers are relying on helicopters, while India and China are sending prefabricated truss bridges to help restore access.

The swollen Trishuli River has also continued to change course unpredictably, making planning a challenge. Areas that were dry one day are flooded the next, and further floods are a constant concern.

Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, that were swept down the mountains by the torrent, have been buried in shallow graves after DNA testing on the plains ⁠of the Himalayan region.

Nepali officials said on Monday that the focus was on reaching the 933 people missing from ‌hydropower plants. “A large amount of debris has been deposited and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels,” the Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters.

About 250 people were rescued from the Upper Trishuli hydroelectric project over the weekend, and army engineers began blasting operations at the site to rescue another 42 workers thought be missing.

The damage to hydropower infrastructure is estimated to have taken 700 megawatts out of service, about 10% of the country’s power capacity. Pictures and videos shared by rescue teams ⁠showed earth-moving equipment shovelling mud to try to reach the tunnels.

Ashish Gurung, who normally works as a guide, was among the rescuers. “There is just mud everywhere,” he said. “Inside the tunnel it was worse. It’s so difficult to move, the mud is so deep.”

His team was trying to access the Chilime hydropower plant in Rasuwa, one of the worst-hit areas. At least eight people are believed missing there, and an Indian team is working alongside the Nepali army using pumps and excavators to locate them.

The Nepali prime minister, Balendra Shah, said rescue efforts were “challenging due to adverse weather, difficult terrain and ongoing risks.”

Gurung said mountaineers were improvising by using planks of wood to check the depth of the mud, before using them as makeshift bridges along with a system of ropes to keep themselves safe.

“Walking in it is very difficult, at one point it was up to our chests,” he said. “We got close to the first station, about 130 metres in. Inside that far … it looked like it was just bodies.”

The hydropower company had given his team a map and it looked as if there was a chance people in the tunnels could have survived. “They have a safe area inside,” he said. “Some of them could potentially be alive. I am hoping they are alive.”

The Red Cross estimates that more than 93,000 people have been affected by the disaster, heightening fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions.

Shah said the flood was an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster” and that it was difficult to compile a complete assessment of the damage.

“Despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens,” he said in a Facebook post late on Sunday. Almost 21,000 security personnel were involved in the rescue operations alongside civilian workers and volunteers, he said.

Whole communities had been destroyed by the flooding, leaving families homeless in heavy rain.

“There are no roads, they have all been washed away, and many areas are just not accessible,” said a police officer coordinating rescue efforts in Nuwakot district. “It is very difficult for my men. The area is still flooded, and elsewhere it is all marshland.”

Nepal’s disaster agency said on Monday it had counted 903 deaths, with 4,793 people, including 592 foreigners, missing. Chinese authorities had reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing as of Sunday. State media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including more than 100 Nepalis.

Among those missing are more than 30 British nationals. On Saturday, a rapid deployment team from the UK arrived in Nepal to support Britons and their families. The UK government has given a £5m support package to assist Nepal in its disaster response.

Amid the soaring toll of death and missing was some hope. On Monday, rescuers pulled a six-year-old girl out of mud after hearing crying. “Her body was trapped in mud, but her head was outside,” the Nepali armed police spokesperson Netra Bahadur Karki told Agence France-Presse.

China’s state-run CCTV said Beijing had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least ​220m yuan (£24m) to support relief efforts and had been airdropping equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers, while its soldiers used life-detection equipment to look for the missing.

Nepal has said it does not need foreign help in general search and rescue operations, but it has leaned on its neighbours, India and China, for their expertise in tunnel rescues.

Rescue operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of bad weather and concerns that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border by the disaster could trigger fresh flooding after it began overflowing into Nepal’s rivers.

The weather was good on Monday, however, and rescue ⁠work picked up pace, said Narendra Pariyar, the district administrator of Rasuwa, one of the two hardest-hit districts.

In the holy ​town of Devighat on the banks of the Trishuli, residents walked around the shells of what had once been ​homes, trying to salvage their belongings from the debris.

The flood was “caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming”, CCTV reported, saying ​it was a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere ‌disasters” on the Tibetan plateau.

Two ​Nepali officials said China had ​not shared much information on glacier risks and water levels after a meeting to strengthen cooperation earlier this year, and they feared that could hamper future disaster preparedness.

China’s foreign ministry said Beijing had continuously provided Nepal with meteorological and hydrological data and will continue to “strongly support” Nepal’s disaster relief efforts and safeguard the two countries’ common interests.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse