Hundreds Feared Trapped in Hydropower Tunnels After Nepal-Tibet Floods

Rescuers are digging through mud-filled hydropower tunnels in Nepal, where about 500 workers are believed trapped after catastrophic floods on the Nepal-China border. Families are searching for information as the regional death toll passes 950 and more than 4,400 people remain missing.

A private-sector association representing Nepal’s power companies said at least 900 workers were unaccounted for at 12 damaged hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. Four bodies had been recovered from three tunnels, Nepal’s army said.

Some workers managed to call for help when the floods struck last Wednesday. Others who escaped told authorities and relatives that colleagues remained underground, according to Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal. It was unclear whether rescuers had made contact with those trapped since the initial calls. Six days after the disaster, Dangi said fears were growing that some workers had suffocated.

“

These tunnels are big enough to drive trucks through.

The tunnels, built to control water flow, are large enough for trucks to pass through. Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz, said some workers might have access to oxygen, but warned that they needed food and water as rescuers raced against time.

At the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, at least 576 people were missing, including about 300 believed trapped inside the tunnel. At the Trishuli-3 project, crews were working to descend about 15 metres into a tunnel, Nepal army spokesman Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said. Workers at a damaged station in Dhading told The Associated Press that it connects power supplies to more than 20,000 people in the region.

“

And from what we understand, they have managed to get oxygen to some of those stuck inside and are trying to rescue them now.