Kathmandu (GNP): Nepal suspended search and rescue operations on Saturday due to poor weather and appealed for specialised foreign technical assistance to cope with the aftermath of a devastating flood that tore through an area bordering Tibet.
The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse on Wednesday, sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris through mountain river systems, killing at least 626 people in Nepal and seven in China’s Tibet region as it swallowed buildings, bridges and power stations along its path.
The scale of loss continues to grow, with nearly 3,000 people still unaccounted for, including about 2,426 in Nepal and at least 558 in Tibet’s Gyirong county. Among the missing are at least 540 foreign nationals, many of them Hindu pilgrims from India.
Narendra Pariyar, the top bureaucrat for the badly hit Rasuwa district, says search and rescue operations were temporarily halted because of rain and fog, with current efforts focused instead on arranging land transport to move rescued pilgrims to Kathmandu. Rescue work was similarly suspended on Friday when a lake formed across the Nepal-China border began overflowing into Nepal’s Lhende Khola and Trishuli rivers.
That lake is one of two upstream bodies of water that authorities are monitoring closely, with officials warning that flood risks will persist until both fully drain. China’s state-run news agency reported on Friday that one of the lakes is shrinking, citing analysis from the water resources ministry, though a Chinese government geohazards expert has cautioned it may remain unstable, adding that more than 100 glacial lakes scattered across the region could pose further threats.
Rather than general rescue support, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal says the country specifically needs help rescuing people trapped in tunnels, restoring transport and communication lines where bridges were destroyed, identifying bodies, and conducting DNA testing and extended body storage. He says Nepal has already made formal requests for such specialised services and technical assistance in areas where domestic expertise and equipment are limited.
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International support has begun arriving in response to these appeals. India has sent three flights carrying about 60 tonnes of relief material, including blankets, medicines, food and water purification tablets, and plans to dispatch a tunnel rescue team and a medical team, alongside an offer of its disaster response force and prefabricated bridges to help restore connectivity. China has called for emergency aid to disaster-hit areas of Nepal and broader international rescue cooperation, though it has not detailed what assistance it plans to send.
The financial scale of recovery is also coming into focus. Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle says the country’s initial estimate is that it will need between four billion and five billion dollars to rebuild, cautioning that this figure remains preliminary as loss and damage assessments continue.
On the Tibetan side of the border, authorities are racing to trace more than 500 missing people, with rescuers reaching the worst-hit Gyirong crossing complex on Friday only after traversing mountains and valleys and using ropes to navigate forests and cliffs where roads had been destroyed. Surveillance footage from the crossing shows the moment torrents of water and debris engulfed buildings there as people attempted to flee.
