Five days after the flash floods that struck the Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions of Nepal, the number of dead and missing people is growing consistently.
The death toll has reached 1,010 while 4,000 people remain missing, with 11,800 rescued. People are angry, blaming the Nepalese government and China. According to the Nepalese army, roughly 9,200 army personnel have been deployed across affected areas.
Nepal’s news outlet Kathmandu Post is reporting that search and rescue operations have intensified at hydropower tunnels along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor. The army said 279 people were rescued alive from various hydropower projects immediately after the floods, including 221 from Upper Trishuli-3A and 33 from Upper Trishuli-1.
Meanwhile, Nepal has launched a diplomatic campaign, following the devastation caused by the flood, asserting that post-disaster assistance should be treated as a matter of “moral liability”, “not charity”.
“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create. The rapid melting of glaciers and these catastrophic mountain tsunamis are direct consequences of global climate change,” said Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal in an interview with Kantipur TV.
“This is a matter of civilisational survival. If our Himalayan glaciers disappear, the water security of over two billion people in South Asia dependent on rivers like the Ganges and the Trishuli will be permanently compromised. We are advocating not just for Nepal, but for the survival of South Asian civilisation,” he said.
The minister identified the US, China and India as the three largest greenhouse gas said they have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal.” Khanal said the finance ministry has officially dispatched a formal climate compensation claim letter to its international partners.