Nepali rescuers have built temporary bridges and cleared tonnes of mud and debris from damaged hydropower projects in the Himalayas, helping to free nearly 300 workers trapped by the disaster.
About 600 people remain stranded at several badly damaged hydropower stations, which have become major targets of ongoing rescue operations.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah said more than 11,000 people had been rescued across affected areas, while electricity and communication services had been restored in parts of the region.
Shah said at least 939 people had died in the disaster, describing the scale of the destruction as a profound national tragedy.
He said thousands of people had lost their homes, relatives, loved ones and possessions in the devastating floods.
The government, he said, was focused on supporting affected communities through the crisis and helping them rebuild their lives through rehabilitation.
Authorities have also reopened road access to Nuwakot, one of the districts hardest hit by the floods. Shah said the restoration of the road network was enabling rescue teams to reach isolated communities and deliver urgently needed relief supplies.
The disaster was triggered by a glacier-related event that sent a powerful torrent of ice, rocks and mud through Nepal’s border region with China, posing a major challenge to the government, which has been in office for only six months.
In Nuwakot’s Betrabati village, police official Bipin Regmi said rescuers recovered 24 bodies from a house as search operations expanded into previously inaccessible areas.
“We are expanding our search to new areas and retrieving bodies,” Regmi told Reuters.
International assistance has also begun reaching Nepal. Shah said more than $42 million in aid had arrived following the disaster, with further contributions expected.
India and China, Nepal’s neighbouring countries, have joined relief efforts, including helping construct Bailey bridges to reconnect isolated communities and restore access to areas cut off by the floods.
Shah said 279 workers had so far been rescued from hydropower facilities, where authorities had estimated that nearly 1,000 people were trapped.
Images released by rescue teams showed heavy machinery working through piles of mud and rock late into the night, while workers stood nearby. Soldiers were also seen using torchlights to search a large excavation for access to a tunnel where people were believed to be trapped.
Nepal has rapidly expanded its hydropower industry over the past two decades as the mountainous country has sought to harness its Himalayan rivers to meet domestic electricity needs and increase power exports to neighbouring India.
Many hydropower projects require extensive tunnel systems to channel water through steep mountain terrain, using the dramatic elevation differences between Himalayan rivers and power stations to generate electricity.
Shah said the disaster was a warning about the increasing dangers facing the Himalayan region and called for greater international attention to climate-related threats.
“The region must continue to stay alert,” Shah said. “We must now make a stronger appeal to the international community about the disasters we are facing as a result of climate change.”
China’s state broadcaster reported on Monday that the floods were associated with glacier instability driven by the prolonged effects of global warming.
Goodness Anunobi
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