Hundreds Feared Trapped in Nepal Hydropower Tunnels as Flood Death Toll Exceeds 950
- Catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal-China border have driven combined death tolls past 950, with emergency crews racing to reach hundreds of workers trapped inside mud-filled hydropower tunnels,...
- According to Nepal’s disaster agency, the country’s death toll reached 903 by Monday, with 4,247 people listed as missing, including 592 foreign nationals.
- Rescue efforts are heavily concentrated on workers believed trapped inside gigantic infrastructure tunnels built to control water flow for power generation.
Catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal-China border have driven combined death tolls past 950, with emergency crews racing to reach hundreds of workers trapped inside mud-filled hydropower tunnels, according to reports from the Associated Press.
Rising Casualties and Missing Persons Across Nepal and China
According to Nepal’s disaster agency, the country’s death toll reached 903 by Monday, with 4,247 people listed as missing, including 592 foreign nationals. Across the border, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing individuals as of Sunday, with Chinese state media noting that 261 of the missing were foreigners, including more than a hundred Nepalis. Families have been left searching desperately for relatives amid mass burials in regions like Chitwan. In the hard-hit Rasuwa district, the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project accounted for 576 missing persons alone, according to Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN). Dangi stated that 12 hydropower projects across the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts suffered severe damage during the flash floods last week.
Rescue Operations Focus on Mud-Choked Hydropower Tunnels
Rescue efforts are heavily concentrated on workers believed trapped inside gigantic infrastructure tunnels built to control water flow for power generation. According to IPPAN’s Dangi, roughly 500 of the 900 unaccounted-for workers from damaged power sites are estimated to be stuck inside these subterranean structures. Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, explained the scale of the structures to the Associated Press.
These tunnels are built to access hydropower infrastructure and to divert water — an essential step to generate energy. These tunnels are big enough to drive trucks through.
Jakob Steiner, geoscientist at the University of Graz Steiner added that the tunnels provide enough space for people to take refuge safely, noting that emergency responders have managed to deliver oxygen to some individuals trapped inside. However, experts warn that time is running short as survivors urgently need food and water. Nepal’s army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, reported that military crews at the Trishuli-3 Hydropower Project were working to descend roughly 15 meters, or 50 feet, into a tunnel to reach trapped personnel. Nepal’s army also confirmed that four bodies had been recovered from three mud-filled tunnels as of Monday. While some workers managed to place emergency calls or escape to report colleagues still inside when the disaster struck last Wednesday, Dangi warned that six days later, fears of suffocation are mounting.
Infrastructure Repairs and Border Access Constraints
On the Chinese side of the border, recovery efforts are heavily tied to restoring compromised transit routes. State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of workers using trucks to carry giant rocks to repave sections of the road leading to the Gyirong Port border crossing. The road has been submerged under two to three meters of water, roughly 6.6 to 9.8 feet, due to swollen, fast-moving rivers powered by days of relentless rain. CCTV reported that the active repaving zone was located just over a kilometer from the border, severely limiting the entry of heavier rescue forces into the disaster zone. Chinese state media coverage has largely emphasized the official government response, detailing the deployment of firefighters, the People’s Liberation Army, and directives from top leadership.
