Nepal will have to rebuild about 20,000 homes in areas devastated by floods, authorities said on Thursday, September 3. Meanwhile, rescue teams continued searching for workers trapped in tunnels of hydropower projects, as well as thousands of people still missing.
A glacier collapse on August 26 triggered a surge of ice, rocks and mud that swept through a region bordering China, destroying entire villages and leaving only a few houses intact. “Our preliminary estimates show that 7,500 homes were completely destroyed, washed away by water or buried under debris and mud,” Dharma Raj Upreti, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Reuters.
Even the homes that survived are now uninhabitable, Upreti added. Authorities estimate that about 20,000 homes will need to be rebuilt in other, safer locations.
“We anticipate that the resources needed for reconstruction will be significant,” Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told envoys in Kathmandu.
The disaster has claimed at least 1,273 lives, according to data released by authorities in both countries. In Nepal, police reported 1,252 deaths, while 21 people died on the Chinese side, according to state media. At least 4,741 people are still missing.
In Kathmandu, Sati Sigdel visits a hospital wall covered with hundreds of photographs every day. Some show missing relatives, others depict recovered but yet-to-be-identified bodies. Sigdel hopes for news about her cousin, Switi Paithan. “We posted her photo three days ago, but we still have no news,” she said.
Hopes of finding survivors fade with each passing day, though Nepali authorities continue search operations.
On Wednesday evening, September 2, people from various mountain regions of Nepal carefully examined the photographs on the wall of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in the capital and asked security guards if they had heard the names of their relatives.
“We are waiting for a miracle,” said Sapna Nepane, who was trying to contact four members of her uncle’s family, all of whom are missing. “It’s hard to just stand in front of this wall and look at thousands of photos.”
Some photos are part of meticulously filled posters with information about the missing and contact numbers, while others have handwritten notes beneath them.
Searches for the missing continue
More than 9,300 Nepali soldiers have been deployed in the affected areas. They are coordinating search and rescue operations, assisting the injured, collecting the bodies of the dead, clearing roads and providing emergency medical aid, the army reported.
An Australian medical student, whose partner went missing near the Nepal-China border, has urged tech companies to expand assistance in the search. She wants companies to share tracking data with authorities to help identify search areas.
On Thursday, Nepal’s government said at least 583 foreigners are missing in the floods. Many of them were pilgrims and trekkers.
An army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said searches are ongoing with experts from India, South Korea and China. They are looking for at least 900 people believed to still be trapped in tunnels linked to hydropower projects.
Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said two bodies were recovered from a tunnel at the Langtang Khola hydropower plant. Australia has pledged additional support and said it will also share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities.
China sent a third batch of aid to Nepal, including tents, blankets, medical protective suits and satellite communication equipment, the Foreign Ministry reported.
Recovery and challenges
Reports of rescue operations in Tibet have dwindled. Much of the information is being spread by Chinese state media due to restrictions on foreign journalists’ access to the region. This comes a day after the reopening of the national highway G216 leading to the affected area.
Tibetan activists and human rights groups have accused China of deliberately underreporting the death toll in the territory under its control. Beijing called these accusations “a malicious campaign of slander and sensationalism.”
Authorities worked to restore normal life as much as possible, focusing on returning children to classes in improvised schools. More than a week after the floods, at least 22,000 children still need drinking water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, according to UNICEF.
“Our priority is to restore normal life. We are assessing whether children can study in temporary shelter centers,” said Fanindra Poudel, an official at Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center.
However, teachers said finding safe buildings for classes has been difficult. “We are looking for safe and empty buildings where we can resume classes,” said Rajendra Dawadi, a school principal who helped save about 900 students by evacuating them in time.
A magnitude 5 earthquake struck far western Tibet, near the border with India, on Thursday, according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences. The epicenter was far from the region hit by the sudden floods.
Source: Folha de S.Paulo
