Glacier flood leaves nearly 5,000 missing across Nepal and Tibet
Controlled blasts and heavy machinery are being used to open blocked hydropower tunnels, where rescuers have recovered three bodies.
- A cross-border flood caused by a glacier collapse has left nearly 5,000 people missing and killed over 900 across Nepal and Tibet.
- The missing toll includes 4,247 people in Nepal, of whom 933 are hydropower workers trapped in tunnels, and 546 people in China's Gyirong County, Tibet.
- Chinese state media attributed the disaster to "glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming," which unleashed a torrent of ice, rock, and mud.
- Rescue efforts are being hampered by bad weather, the risk of further landslides, and the threat of another flood from an unstable lake formed by the disaster.
Renewed flooding and landslide danger are complicating efforts to locate 933 workers missing from 11 hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, the two Nepali districts worst affected by last week’s Himalayan disaster.
Many of the workers are believed to be inside tunnels blocked by mud, water and rocks.
Search operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of bad weather and fears that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border could cause another flood after it began overflowing into rivers in Nepal.
China’s state-run CCTV reported that another lake farther upstream, created by a landslide, had largely emptied through natural drainage.
Investigators nevertheless identified eight locations at high risk of geological disasters, while further landslides along the river could create additional lakes.
CCTV also reported that an impact crater near the glacier-collapse site on the Nepal side had expanded to 174,000 square metres by Saturday evening.
Its reservoir was estimated at 2.5 million cubic metres, and authorities warned that a breach could set off a chain reaction involving lakes farther downstream.
Despite the continuing risks, Nepali teams intensified their work on Monday (August 31), supported by Chinese and Indian experts.
Nepal has maintained that it does not require foreign assistance for general search-and-rescue operations, but has drawn on its two neighbours’ expertise in tunnel rescues.
At the hydropower sites, Nepal Army search teams used controlled blasts, excavators and searchlights as they cleared water and mud in an attempt to reach those trapped.
Three bodies were recovered after rescuers entered two tunnels, while other sections remained buried in mud and were still being searched.
Images and footage released from the sites showed earth-moving machinery digging through mud and rocks under artificial light after dark as workers looked on.
Soldiers carrying torches examined a large pit they had created while trying to find a way into one tunnel.
The accumulated debris remained the central obstacle.
“A large amount of debris has been deposited, and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels,” Nepal Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters.
“Our main focus is on opening the tunnels.”
The missing workers form part of a much larger toll from Wednesday’s cross-border flood, which was blamed on a glacier collapse.
A torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris swept through valley towns and villages in Nepal and caused further destruction across the border in China.
More than 900 people were killed, and nearly 5,000 remained missing.
Figures released on Monday showed that 903 people had died in Nepal and 4,247 were missing, including the 933 hydropower workers.
Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing in Gyirong County.
Hundreds of bodies carried down from the mountains were buried in shallow graves after beginning to decompose in the humid conditions of Nepal’s plains.
Many had not been identified.
The Red Cross estimated that more than 90,000 people were likely to have been affected by the disaster.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah described the flood as an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster” and acknowledged that compiling a complete assessment of the damage remained difficult.
“Despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens,” Shah wrote in a Facebook post late on Sunday.
Nearly 21,000 security personnel were involved in the operations, alongside civilian workers and volunteers.
On the Tibetan side, Beijing reported that 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were unaccounted for near a key border crossing with Nepal.
CCTV said China had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220 million yuan (US$33 million) to support relief efforts.
Equipment and supplies were being airdropped to frontline rescuers, while Chinese soldiers used life-detection equipment to search for missing people.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was visiting Kyrgyzstan, said Beijing was making every effort to locate those still unaccounted for, Xinhua reported on Monday.
CCTV reported that the flood was “caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming”, describing it as a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere disasters” on the Tibetan Plateau.
Two Nepali officials told Reuters that China had not provided much information about glacier risks and water levels following a meeting earlier this year intended to strengthen cooperation.
They feared that insufficient data sharing could hamper preparations for future disasters.
China’s foreign ministry responded on Monday that Beijing had continuously supplied Nepal with meteorological and hydrological data.
It pledged to continue to “strongly support” Nepal’s disaster-relief operations and safeguard the common interests of both countries.
