&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Rescuers blast hillside in search of over 900 missing hydropower workers; Nepal flood toll surges to 939")
More than 900 workers of hydropower projects are still missing, and many of them are believed to be still trapped in a vast network of mud-filled tunnels along Nepal’s Trishuli River as rescue teams are battling to save them.
On Monday, rescuers finally resorted to using explosives to blast the hillside before pumping air into the Trishuli-3A site after fearing that the critical window to reach survivors is closing.
The death toll from the unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris on the Nepal-Tibet border last Wednesday has risen to 939 people, according to Nepal’s disaster management authority, which also revised its estimate of the number of missing to 3,925, including 592 foreign nationals.
The rescue operation is being spearheaded by an international team of Chinese and Nepalese military personnel, while experts from India, Korea and Australia are also involved.
At least 11 hydropower projects damaged in floods
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Nepal relies heavily on hydropower and has spent years developing the projects along its mountainous river systems. At least 11 projects either completed or under construction were damaged in the floods, authorities said. Rescuers began pumping air into a tunnel over the weekend.
A team of rescuers succeeded in getting into a tunnel leading to one hydropower plant earlier on Monday but withdrew after finding no one there.
Australian engineer Arnold Dix, who has been helping Nepalese authorities with the underground search operations remotely, said rescuers had been struggling to find the tunnels. He said there is still some hope for those trapped underground, as the subterranean environment might have offered some protection from the deluge above.
Makeshift burials start in Chitwan amid shortage of freezers
Meanwhile, makeshift burials were started in Chitwan, as men wearing white Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and masks carried unidentified corpses.
Chief district officer Ganesh Aryaal said relatives will be able to extricate the remains of their loved ones once they are identified through DNA testing.
“We had to choose this last alternative of a temporary burial system, as we don’t have enough freezers here. We are really overwhelmed,” he said.
Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, the country’s disaster management authority said.
Official death toll in Tibet pegged at 16
Experts fear the chances of finding survivors in tunnels are diminishing as oxygen levels fall.
About 250 people were rescued from the Upper Trishuli hydroelectric project over the weekend, and army engineers began blasting operations at the site to rescue another 42 workers thought to be missing.
In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported missing, according to Chinese state media. Footage of the floods has been heavily censored in China.
Chinese authorities have imposed ‘administrative penalties,’ which can range from warnings and fines to short detentions, on people speculating online that the casualty numbers are a lot higher than reported.
