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🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

Arnold Dix says Nepal rescue teams face a challenge unlike any before

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Australian tunnel expert Arnold Dix has joined Nepali and Indian teams searching for people believed to be trapped at Nepal’s Chilime Hydropower Project after Bhotekoshi flooding.
  • Dix says the operation involves multiple potential rescues in different locations, each with its own risks and uncertainty; he says 41 people remain trapped.
  • The effort follows the 2023 rescue in India, where 41 trapped workers survived after 17 days underground.

Australian tunnel expert Arnold Dix says Nepal’s rescue operation presents a challenge unlike anything he has faced before: several possible rescues are unfolding at different locations at the same time.

Right now, in Nepal, we are facing something I have never faced before.

· Arnold DixDix described the unprecedented nature of the rescue operation in social media posts.

Dix arrived in Nepal to support the search at the Chilime Hydropower Project after devastating floods struck the Bhotekoshi River on August 26. He reached Nepal on Saturday, visited the Pashupatinath Temple and then travelled to the project site. “This is not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved,” he wrote in social media posts on Monday.

He has reunited at Chilime with colleagues from the 2023 Silkyara tunnel rescue in India, including Colonel Parikshit Mehra, who leads the Indian Army and National Disaster Response Force team deployed in Nepal. The Indian government mobilised the tunnel rescue team through the NDRF on the fourth day after the disaster.

This is not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.

· Arnold DixHe explained why the Chilime operation differs from earlier tunnel rescues.

Dix said 41 people remain trapped inside the Chilime tunnel. He and Nepali and Indian experts have assessed conditions and revised plans to reach the underground powerhouse, where those missing may have taken refuge. He said the operation would require teams to continue despite uncertainty over the outcome.

Hope must become discipline, compassion must become action, and duty cannot depend on certainty of success.

· Arnold DixDix described the commitment required from rescue teams.

“Hope must become discipline, compassion must become action, and duty cannot depend on certainty of success,” Dix wrote. Drawing on the Silkyara rescue, where all 41 workers were brought out alive after 17 days underground, he said the experience had taught him not to confuse what is unlikely with what is impossible. The Chilime search forms part of a wider operation after catastrophic flooding along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor, which has left hundreds dead and thousands missing. Dix added: “We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon.”

We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon.

· Arnold DixHis concluding appeal not to abandon people who may still be alive.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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