Nepal’s Foreign Minister details the ‘extraordinary complexity’ of the flood disaster. Nearly 12,000 people have been rescued, but 1,200 are dead and over 4,000 remain missing. Rescue efforts are severely hampered by difficult terrain.
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has detailed the extraordinary complexity and destruction of the ongoing flood disaster, confirming that while nearly 12,000 people have been rescued, approximately 1,200 people have died and over 4,000 remain unaccounted for. Speaking with ANI, the Foreign Minister pledged that search and rescue efforts will continue uninterrupted until security personnel indicate that survival chances have been exhausted.
Highlighting the scale of human impact, the Foreign Minister outlined the latest figures on survivors, casualties, and ongoing missing-persons searches. “As of today, we have rescued almost about 12,000 people brought to safety, including many foreign nationals, and almost 1,200 people have declared dead at this point, who have passed away in this disaster, and over 4,000 people are still reported unaccounted for. But there is an active rescue effort going on, and we will continue to search until our security agencies who are on the ground tell us that that the chances of survival would go down. Only then we’ll call off the rescue operation,” he said.
Severe Physical Constraints Impede Relief
Elaborating on the severe physical constraints impeding relief operations, the Foreign Minister described how destroyed infrastructure and narrow geographical formations have severely limited reach into the flood-hit regions. “This has been a very complex disaster. The geographical landscape of that area, terrain, it’s very difficult. It’s very… And the fact that the roads were swept away, the bridges were swept away. So physical connectivity to that area has been extremely difficult,” he said.
“So the only way you can get to the most northern part of the region, which was most heavily hit, was through helicopters. But even the biggest helicopters that we have cannot go there, so we are using smaller helicopters to go there because this area has a narrow, deep gorge, tall mountains on the both sides, and that’s one side of the challenge of the geography,” he added.
‘Himalayan Tsunami’ Engulfs Villages
Characterising the unique nature of the deluge, the Foreign Minister termed the event a “Himalayan tsunami” due to the thick mixture of mud and stone that has completely engulfed structures and rendered the ground unsustainably swampy: “Second challenge is this, you know, what we’re calling the flood. It’s more than a flood. It’s almost like a Himalayan tsunami is what I began to call it. It carried a lot of debris, and the debris is a mixture of the stone, mud mixture. It feels like a liquid cement, and that land, entire land has turned very swampy, so when heavy equipment, big helicopters cannot land there. So that’s one challenge, topography. Second, most of these… I received images of villages, the towns being completely submerged or completely by the flood, many sort of washed away. But many of these areas, the tallest, tall buildings, 30, 40 feet high, on the ground has also come under the debris. So it’s completely covered. So from naked eyes, you cannot really see these buildings as well,” the Foreign Minister stated.
Search Extends to Subterranean Tunnels
Compounding the crisis, the Foreign Minister stated that search teams are actively attempting to reach victims trapped within subterranean infrastructure and hydroelectric power facilities. “Given all these challenges, it’s… And then there is an aspect of hydroelectricity power plant tunnels. There’s an active rescue effort going on there as well. So given all these challenges, the topography, the rescue requirement within the tunnel, the fact that villages were completely swept away has meant that many people are still unaccounted for,” he said.
Earlier, the Nepal police said that search and rescue operations are ongoing inside the tunnel of the Langtang Hydropower Project-2, located in Rasuwa District. Meanwhile, a makeshift zip line has restored connectivity between communities in flood-hit Trishuli after bridges were destroyed by floods, with Nepal Police assisting in its operation.
Death Toll Climbs as New Figures Released
This comes as the death toll from the catastrophic Rasuwa floods in Nepal has climbed to 1,259, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) as of 7:00 PM on Thursday.
The NDRRMA detailed that Chitwan has registered the highest loss of life with 355 recovered bodies (including various unidentified human remains), followed by Nawalparasi East (218), Nawalparasi West (212), Nuwakot (177), Rasuwa (127), Gorkha (72), Dhading (60), and Tanahun (38). Out of the total fatalities, 95 bodies have been officially handed over. (ANI)
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