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The desperate mission to find survivors in Nepal’s underground hydropower tunnels
🇦🇺 Australia /Disasters & Emergencies

The desperate mission to find survivors in Nepal’s underground hydropower tunnels

From ABC Australia · () English

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

At a glance

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  • Rescuers are searching underground hydropower facilities near Nepal’s border with Tibet after floods swept through the region, with more than 900 workers feared trapped.
  • Crews are working around the clock despite collapsed hillsides, poor weather and difficult access to the tunnels.
  • Engineer Arnold Dix said some underground power stations may have survived and that survivors could potentially live for up to 17 days, although their condition is unknown.

Rescuers in Nepal are digging through a landscape where entire power stations have disappeared from view, searching for more than 900 workers feared trapped underground after catastrophic flooding near the border with Tibet.

The floods sent ice, rock, mud and water through the region last Wednesday. Above ground, hillsides collapsed and access routes vanished. Underground, emergency crews are concentrating on power-station structures that may have withstood the force of the deluge.

lunar landscape

— Arnold DixThe engineer used the phrase to describe the devastated terrain facing rescuers.

Arnold Dix, a Melbourne-based geologist and engineer who flew to Nepal to advise the rescue teams, said survivors could remain alive for as long as 17 days. Some underground stations may have resisted the flooding, he said, but it is not known whether emergency systems activated in time or whether water and debris reached the facilities.

Everything is just missing

— Arnold DixDix explained why crews were struggling to locate access tunnels.

Dix described the terrain as a “lunar landscape.” “Everything is just missing,” he said, leaving rescuers struggling to locate the access tunnels. Equipment has been difficult to bring in, forcing some crews to dig with their hands or shovels.

The flood “basically wiped out 27 power stations,” Dix said. Twelve were destroyed, with nothing left at the surface. At the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, teams are trying to reach a tunnel leading to a powerhouse buried 33 metres beneath the mountains. The search is focused on the underground structures, rather than the kilometres-long headrace tunnels that carry river water through the system.

The deluge basically wiped out 27 power stations

— Arnold DixHe described the scale of damage to hydropower facilities in the flooded region.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia 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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