The combined death toll from massive flooding that struck the Himalayan mountain region along the Nepal-China border has passed 1,000.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said on the 1st that flood-related deaths in Nepal had risen to 1,003, according to Reuters. Adding 16 deaths on the Chinese side brings the total to 1,019.
The number of missing has climbed to 4,462, including 3,916 in Nepal, of whom 590 are foreign nationals, and 546 in China, of whom 261 are foreign nationals. Nepali authorities said at least 11,814 people had been rescued as of that day.
Rescue teams are using helicopters and other aircraft to reach areas cut off after floods and landslides destroyed roads and bridges. As temporary bridges are built and roads, power and communications are restored, more isolated areas are being reached, and the official casualty count is expected to keep rising.
Rescuers are focusing in particular on hydropower plants. The disaster management authority said at least 639 people were missing or trapped at several hydropower plants, and many of them are believed to be stuck inside plant tunnels. The estimated number of missing plant workers fell by about 290 from an earlier figure of 933, but no explanation was given for the decrease. Several plants are buried under thick layers of mud, hampering the search, and with the disaster entering its seventh day, concerns are growing that the chances of finding survivors are shrinking.
At the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, where 93 people are believed missing, rescue teams deployed drones and searched deep into tunnels the previous day but ended the operation without finding any of the missing or dead.
Experts said the first 72 hours after the disaster are the most critical for survival, given the likely shortage of oxygen and drinking water inside the tunnels. Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on social media the previous night that rescuers had pulled 279 workers from plant sites so far.
South Korea's Korea Disaster Relief Team departs for Nepal on the night of the 1st. The 44-member team, made up of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Fire Agency and the Korea International Cooperation Agency, will consult with Nepali authorities and the government's existing joint rapid response team after arriving, and will focus on areas where South Koreans are missing. The team plans to deploy high-resolution camera drones, acoustic and video detectors for locating buried people, and thermal imaging equipment.
The joint rapid response team also conducted a search with the Nepali army that morning around the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant, where the nine missing South Koreans had worked. The team searched the accident area from the air using a Nepali army helicopter, then landed near the weir dam and searched on foot, but found nothing related to the whereabouts of the missing. A nine-member ground search team also moved into an area about 2 kilometers from the camp and worksite where the missing workers had stayed, conducting a search using drones. Korea South-East Power, which took part in construction of the plant, deployed a total of six devices including thermal imaging drones to search the base camp, powerhouse and downstream river area in detail, while Doosan Enerbility (034020) sent one helicopter for an aerial search around the plant.
Meanwhile, the Nepali government has described the flooding as a climate change disaster, urging the international community to act on climate change and seeking compensation from the world's major greenhouse gas emitters.
"Nepal's greenhouse gas emissions are practically negligible, yet we are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not cause," Foreign Minister Sishir Khanal said. "The government has sent official letters to international partners claiming compensation for climate change."
"Major industrial nations and greenhouse gas emitters such as China, the world's largest emitter, the United States, the second, and India, the third, have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable countries like Nepal," he added. "We are raising this issue not just for Nepal, but for the survival of South Asian civilization as a whole."
