How Engineers in a WhatsApp Group Are Guiding Nepal’s Flood Rescue Efforts

A WhatsApp group created by engineers before a wall of water, mud and rock tore through Nepal’s Trishuli valley has become an improvised command tool in the search for survivors. Rescue teams are using the group alongside helicopters and heavy machinery as they examine hydropower plants buried by the flood.

On Saturday, a government official asked the group for layout drawings of the Chilime hydropower plant. Minutes later, an engineer shared plans of the powerhouse and details of its access tunnels. More than 500 people now belong to the expanded group, including experts supporting the rescue effort.

The authorities hope some of the roughly 900 people reported missing from six hydropower plants may have survived by reaching tunnels used to channel water or access the facilities. Finding the entrances has proved difficult after the flood deposited 2.2 million tonnes of mud and debris across the valley.

No survivors have yet been found in the tunnels at the 22-megawatt Chilime plant or at other facilities farther down the valley. Nepal’s Independent Power Producers’ Association said at least eight people could be trapped at Chilime, while a Nepal Electricity Authority official estimated that 46 may be trapped at the Rasuwagadhi plant.

Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said the flood had altered the terrain around the tunnels and changed their structure, while mud, rocks, soil and other debris had filled the passages. “This is not a normal closure of tunnels,” he said. Rescue workers at Rasuwagadhi reached 250 metres into one tunnel before it became blocked. The search continues at five other hydroelectric sites in the valley, part of a power network that supplied Nepal and exported surplus electricity.

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This is not a normal closure of tunnels.