The death toll from the unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris has now risen to 903 people, with 16 more dead reported on the Tibetan side of the border.
More than 4,000 people are still missing in Nepal, with another 500 plus in Tibet.
Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, have been buried in shallow graves on the plains of the Himalayan region after being swept down the mountains by the torrent.
The flood was ‘caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming’, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported, saying it was a ‘new and prominent feature of cryosphere (a state of nature where water exists in solid form) disasters’ on the Tibetan plateau.
Trapped Underground
Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 people believed to be trapped in underground facilities that make up Nepal’s hydropower projects.
Nepali officials said the focus was on reaching the 933 people missing from hydropower projects in the flood-hit region.
‘A large amount of debris has been deposited and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels,’ said Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet.
Ashish Gurung, who normally works as a guide, was among the rescuers.
‘There is just mud everywhere,’ he told the UK’s Guardian newspaper. ‘Inside the tunnel it was worse. It’s so difficult to move, the mud is so deep.’
Mountaineering rescue teams at the Chilime Hydropower in Ruswana improvised by grabbing planks of wood to check the depth of the mud, before using them as a makeshift bridge, along with a system of ropes to keep themselves safe, he said.
‘Walking in it is very difficult; at one point it was up to our chests,’ Gurung said. ‘We got close to the first station, about 130 metres in. Inside that far, it looked like it was just bodies.’
The hydro company had given his team a map and it looked like there was a chance people in the tunnels could have survived by staying in secure areas.
‘They have a safe area inside,’ he said. ‘Some of them could potentially be alive. I am hoping they are alive.’
The Red Cross has estimated that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster.
Nepal’s Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, said the flood was an ‘unprecedented and devastating natural disaster’.
Posting on Facebook he stated: ‘despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens.’
Almost 21,000 security personnel were involved in the rescue operations, besides civilian workers and volunteers, he added.
Nepal’s disaster agency said on Monday 31stAugust that 903 deaths had been counted, with 4,247 people, including 592 foreigners, missing.
As of Sunday, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, and Chinese state media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including over a hundred Nepalis.
China’s state-run CCTV reported that Beijing had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220m yuan ($33m) to support relief efforts and had been airdropping equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers, while its soldiers used life-detection equipment to look for the missing.
