Nepalese rescue forces are trying to find missing people in hydroelectric tunnels

Nepalese rescue forces are trying to find people trapped in hydroelectric tunnels, but hope is fading as they continuously encounter dead ends.

"Search and rescue work continues, with support from foreign rescue teams at hydroelectric tunnels," Shanti Mahat, spokesperson for the Nepal National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Agency (NDRRMA), said today. "They still continue their work despite many difficulties. The amount of rock and liquid mud remaining is very large."

In some cases, finding the entrance is a challenge, and even when found, the tunnel can collapse, blocking the inside.

Rescuers took at least three bodies out of two tunnels on August 31 and went hundreds of meters deep into several other tunnels, but had to stop because of mud and dirt.

"We have reached all the tunnels, but getting inside is very difficult due to rocks and liquid mud," Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told reporters on September 1.

The Nepal government initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside many of the tunnels. The trapped people are among 639 hydropower workers missing since a flash flood hit the border area between Nepal and China on August 26.

The Nepal Electricity Authority said 11 hydropower plants and one solar power plant with a total capacity of 431.1 megawatts were shut down, accounting for about 10% of the country's total available power generation capacity. 15 other power projects under construction, with a total design capacity of up to 470 megawatts, were also damaged.

After days of searching at shelters and morgues, relatives of some missing people lost hope and began holding requiem ceremonies, burning straw dolls according to Hindu rites.

"We have to do this to free his soul, so that he can be at peace and at peace wherever he is," Dolma Newar Tamang said at her husband's funeral.

When the disaster happened, her husband was on his way to China. "I saw the news and immediately called him," she said. "I kept calling but he didn't pick up."

Due to overloaded morgues in Nepal, the government was forced to conduct a centralized burial of hundreds of unidentified bodies after collecting DNA samples.

Nepal said it had found 1,114 bodies as of September 2, while 3,916 people were still missing. Chinese state media recorded 16 deaths and 546 missing people in the country. Thus, the total number of dead and missing on both sides of the border is 1,130 and 4,462 respectively.

More than 800 foreigners from more than 30 countries are among the missing. They were tourists who came to climb mountains in the Himalayas with Hindus on pilgrimage to the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet.