Nepal tunnel traps hinder flood rescue: How many are dead or missing? - Al Jazeera

**Nepal flash floods continue to devastate the nation, with the death toll now exceeding 900 and more than 4,000 people still unaccounted for, according to local authorities and media reports.** The catastrophe was triggered by unprecedented monsoon rains that caused rivers to swell and breach embankments across the country’s hilly terrain. Entire villages have been washed away, roads and bridges shattered, and power infrastructure crippled, leaving millions without electricity or safe drinking water. The scale of the disaster has drawn comparisons to the 2015 earthquake, prompting the government to declare a national emergency and request assistance from neighboring India, China, and the United Nations.

One of the most harrowing episodes in the ongoing rescue operation involves a hydropower tunnel in the western district of Dolpa, where **93 construction workers became trapped after a sudden flash flood collapsed the entrance and flooded the shaft.** Rescue teams, equipped with thermal imaging drones, have been unable to locate any heat signatures inside the tunnel, suggesting the workers may have been swept deeper into the mountain or succumbed to the floodwaters. The tunnel, part of a broader effort to expand Nepal’s renewable energy capacity, was built by a foreign contractor and had been operating under tight timelines. Officials have said that the extreme weather conditions, combined with unstable geology, have rendered conventional rescue methods unsafe, forcing teams to rely on remote sensing and limited manual entry.

The government, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has launched a multi‑agency task force to coordinate search and rescue, medical aid, and temporary shelters for displaced families. International aid has begun to flow, with India deploying army engineers, China sending relief helicopters, and UN agencies providing emergency supplies. Meanwhile, human‑rights groups and environmental activists have raised concerns that climate‑induced extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in the Himalayas, warning that inadequate early‑warning systems and poorly planned infrastructure projects exacerbate the human cost. As the floodwaters recede, authorities plan to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damaged hydropower facilities and consider stricter safety protocols for future tunnel construction.

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