Nepal flash floods LIVE: At least 933 workers trapped in hydropower projects - The Hindu
The floods have trapped nearly a thousand hydropower workers, prompting a multinational rescue effort hampered by swollen rivers and limited data sharing with China. Survivors' harrowing stories highlight both the peril of Nepal’s expanding energy infrastructure and the urgent need for improved cross‑border disaster coordination.
AI Objective Summary
The floods have trapped nearly a thousand hydropower workers, prompting a multinational rescue effort hampered by swollen rivers and limited data sharing with China. Survivors' harrowing stories highlight both the peril of Nepal’s expanding energy infrastructure and the urgent need for improved cross‑border disaster coordination.
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**Nepal Flash Floods Leave Hundreds of Hydropower Workers Trapped**
The monsoon deluge that began on 26 July has turned the central hills of Nepal into a disaster zone, with torrential rain and overflowing rivers inundating villages, roads, and a network of hydropower tunnels. According to The Hindu, at least **933 workers** engaged in construction and maintenance of hydropower projects across the Karnali, Gandaki and Mahakali basins are now stranded in submerged shafts and caverns. The Nepalese government has declared a state of emergency, mobilising the Nepalese Army, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) and civilian volunteers to launch a coordinated rescue operation. The Army’s engineering units have deployed inflatable boats and rope‑crawling teams, while the Ministry of Energy has ordered the temporary shutdown of 12 active hydropower sites to prioritise life‑saving efforts.
Rescue teams are confronting extreme logistical hurdles. In several cases, water levels have risen to more than 10 metres, forcing responders to **rappel into dark, water‑filled tunnels** using specialized rope systems—a technique highlighted by CNN’s live coverage. The most critical sites include the **Koshi‑Bagmati** and **West Seti** projects, where workers were trapped for up to 48 hours before contact could be re‑established. Indian disaster‑relief experts from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have crossed the border to assist, providing high‑capacity pumps and inflatable shelters. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities, whose upstream dams regulate flow into the Karnali, have been urged by Nepalese officials to share real‑time hydrological data, a point underscored by NDTV as exposing long‑standing gaps in cross‑border information exchange.
Personal accounts illustrate the human toll of the catastrophe. A 24‑year‑old Nepali construction worker recounted how a **mango tree** acted as a makeshift barrier, shielding him from a sudden surge that swept away nearby houses; without it, he believes he would not have survived. In Odisha, India, an engineer who had been working on a trans‑border project was **saved by a ring** that kept him afloat, but his wife and two‑year‑old daughter remain missing, according to *The Telegraph*. The disaster has reignited debates over the safety of rapid hydropower expansion in seismically active, flood‑prone terrain and the need for robust, binational early‑warning systems to prevent future tragedies.
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