Nepal faces the reconstruction of about 20,000 homes as rescuers continue searching for workers believed to be trapped in hydropower tunnels after a devastating glacier-related flood near the border with China.
Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said preliminary assessments showed that 7,500 houses had been completely destroyed, either swept away or buried beneath mud and debris.
Many of the homes left standing are considered unsafe or uninhabitable. Officials are now identifying locations where communities can be rebuilt away from areas exposed to the same risks.
“There is no point in rebuilding the houses in the same locations, as that would expose people to the same risks,” Mr Upreti told Reuters.
The disaster began on August 26, when a glacier collapse sent a surge of ice, rock and mud through settlements in Nepal’s northern border region. At least 1,204 people were killed and more than 4,200 remained missing, according to the latest figures reported by Reuters.
The search has also focused on hydropower facilities along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor, where about 900 workers are still unaccounted for. Rescue teams from Nepal, India, China, South Korea and the United States have been involved in efforts to reach damaged tunnels.
A South Korean team based near the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project is using drones, rescue dogs, acoustic equipment and video and thermal-imaging technology. Nine South Korean workers are among those missing at the site.
Rescuers have located tunnel entrances at several projects and begun clearing debris, pumping air and draining water. At Upper Trishuli-3A, teams have been manually opening part of the passage, while specialist crews have advanced into tunnels at Chilime, Langtang and Upper Trishuli-1.
The Nepali Army said 279 people had been rescued alive from hydropower projects immediately after the floods, including 221 from Upper Trishuli-3A and 33 from Upper Trishuli-1.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the government was concentrating on rehabilitation and rebuilding while the search for survivors continued. Officials are also planning a new early-warning system on Nepal’s side of the border, using seismic sensors, cameras and satellite communications to provide earlier notice of future landslides and floods.
