Nepal rescue teams focus on three tunnels where workers may be trapped

Nepalese rescuers are focusing on three hydropower project tunnels where authorities believe dozens of workers could still be trapped, two weeks after a devastating flood killed hundreds and left thousands missing in Nepal and neighboring Tibet.

At least 11 hydropower projects were engulfed after a glacier collapsed into a river on the Nepal-China border on Aug. 26. Debris and mud buried tunnel entrances and cut off people inside. Disaster authority chief Dharma Raj Upreti said teams were concentrating on the Chilime hydroelectric project because it had a canteen, accommodation and food supplies. They are also searching the tunnels at the Upper Trishuli 3A and 3B projects, which are connected by an interconnected passage.

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Our search operation is focussed on finding survivors, including in tunnels. Our bigger focus is on the Chilime hydroelectric project, where we believe people are trapped, because there was a canteen, residency and arrangements for food.

“Oxygen has been supplied to these tunnels through pipes and we have sent new equipment needed for the operation,” Upreti said. The equipment is intended to help teams open a passage into the tunnels. Army rescuers said about 121 of the 900 people missing from the hydropower projects may have been trapped underground. Others may have been working elsewhere at the plants.

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Oxygen has been supplied to these tunnels through pipes and we have sent new equipment needed for the operation.

Teams have rescued four people in recent days. A Chinese national was pulled from a tunnel on Sept. 5, while two hydropower workers were rescued from another tunnel on Sept. 4. A Nepali woman was also pulled from a buried house on Sept. 5.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah vowed that the rescue effort would continue. “We know our responsibility and its sensitivity. We are translating the humanitarian spirit of the Nepali people into practice through the search and rescue operation,” he said in a social media post. The disaster has killed at least 1,399 people and left more than 5,400 missing in Nepal and Tibet. China and Nepal have blamed climate change for the glacier collapse that triggered the flooding.

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We know our responsibility and its sensitivity. We are translating the humanitarian spirit of the Nepali people into practice through the search and rescue operation.