Nepal Seeks Specialized Foreign Aid as Flood Death Toll Hits 626, Rebuilding May Cost $5 Billion
KATHMANDU, NEPAL — WEB DESK: Nepal is seeking specialized international technical assistance after catastrophic floods triggered by a glacier collapse killed at least 626 people in the country, while bad weather temporarily forced authorities to suspend search and rescue operations on Saturday.
Another seven deaths have been reported in Tibet, bringing the confirmed toll across Nepal and the Chinese-administered region to at least 633, according to the latest Reuters reporting. Nearly 3,000 people remain missing across the disaster zone.
Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle said an initial assessment indicated the Himalayan nation could require between $4 billion and $5 billion for reconstruction.
“This is just an estimate. Loss and damage is being assessed,” Wagle told Reuters, underscoring that the eventual cost could change as authorities determine the full extent of destruction.
Bad Weather Temporarily Halts Search Operations
Heavy rain and fog complicated emergency operations on Saturday in Rasuwa district, one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
Narendra Pariyar, the district’s senior administrative official, said search and rescue operations had been temporarily halted because of the weather.
Authorities were instead concentrating on arranging ground transportation to move rescued pilgrims and other survivors towards Kathmandu.
The suspension does not mean Nepal has abandoned rescue operations. It was a temporary safety measure caused by rain, fog and continuing hazards in the disaster zone.
Nepal’s government said in an official update that its security forces, disaster-management agencies, local authorities and health services had been mobilized for search, rescue, evacuation, medical assistance and relief operations.
Nearly 3,000 People Still Missing
The human toll has risen dramatically as emergency teams gain access to previously isolated areas.
Reuters reported Saturday that about 2,426 people were missing in Nepal, while at least 554 remained unaccounted for in Tibet’s Gyirong County. The missing include at least 540 foreign nationals, many of them Indian Hindu pilgrims.
The Express Tribune version of the Reuters report carried an earlier figure of 558 missing in Tibet, illustrating how casualty and missing-person numbers have been changing rapidly as authorities verify information.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry had reported 538 recovered bodies as of 3 p.m. local time on August 28, showing how quickly the toll increased as more areas became accessible. The ministry cautioned that its figures remained subject to verification.
Glacier Collapse Triggered Catastrophic Flood
The disaster struck on Wednesday when a glacier collapse unleashed a massive flow of water, rock, ice, mud and other debris through Himalayan river systems.
The torrent swept away buildings, bridges and power facilities as it moved downstream through communities near the Nepal-Tibet border.
Earlier reporting said the seismic signal generated by the event was initially interpreted as an earthquake before further analysis indicated a glacier collapse and debris flow.
For editorial accuracy, the disaster should therefore not be described simply as an earthquake-triggered flood.
Nor should this individual event be directly attributed to climate change without a specific scientific attribution study. Scientists have warned more broadly, however, that warming conditions are increasing hazards associated with unstable glaciers and glacial lakes across the Himalayas.
Nepal Wants Technical Expertise, Not General Rescue Teams
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal stressed that Nepal was not asking other countries to take over its general search-and-rescue operation.
Instead, Kathmandu is seeking specialized expertise and technology in areas where domestic capabilities are limited.
Those needs include rescuing people trapped in tunnels, reopening transport and communications where bridges have been destroyed, identifying bodies, conducting DNA testing and preserving remains for longer periods.
That distinction is important: Nepal’s request is primarily for specialized technical assistance, rather than a broad international search-and-rescue deployment.
The Foreign Ministry has also established an emergency mechanism to coordinate information and consular assistance for foreign nationals affected by or missing after the floods.
Tunnel Rescue Among Major Challenges
One of the most difficult operations involves people believed to be trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower project in the disaster zone.
Earlier reports indicated that more than 100 people could be trapped inside a mud-filled tunnel at the Upper Trishuli hydropower complex.
Access has been severely complicated by destroyed roads, mud, unstable terrain and damage to the tunnel entrance.
The need for expertise in such technically complex rescue operations is one reason Nepal has requested specialized international assistance.
India Sends 60 Tonnes of Relief Supplies
India has already dispatched three aircraft carrying about 60 tonnes of humanitarian relief supplies, including medicines, blankets, food and water-purification tablets.
New Delhi also plans to send a tunnel-rescue team and medical personnel.
India has additionally offered its disaster-response force, prefabricated bridges and technical teams to help Nepal restore connectivity in areas where infrastructure has been destroyed.
China, meanwhile, has called for emergency assistance to affected parts of Nepal and greater international rescue cooperation, although Reuters said Beijing had not specified in that report what assistance it would provide to Nepal.
Bodies Becoming Difficult to Identify
The scale of the disaster has created another urgent challenge for authorities: identifying the dead.
Some bodies recovered three days after the flooding had decomposed to the point that visual identification was no longer possible.
Authorities in Chitwan said DNA samples would be collected before unidentified bodies were buried following required legal procedures, partly because of public-health concerns.
At Kathmandu’s Maharajgunj Medical Campus, only seven of 49 bodies received at one point had been identified, according to officials cited by Reuters. Families of missing people gathered outside the facility searching for information about relatives.
This explains Nepal’s request for international assistance with DNA testing, identification and preservation of remains.
Secondary Flood Threat Has Not Completely Disappeared
Authorities are also closely monitoring lakes created or destabilized by the disaster upstream of the affected areas.
Rescue operations were temporarily suspended on Friday when a lake across the Nepal-China border began overflowing towards the Lhende Khola and Trishuli river systems.
By Saturday, Chinese authorities said the immediate overflow risk from one lake had decreased as water gradually drained from the reservoir.
However, Nepal is monitoring two upstream lakes, and officials have warned that flood danger will remain until they have fully drained.
The reduced risk from one lake therefore should not be interpreted as meaning the secondary-flood threat has ended.
Reconstruction Bill Could Reach $5 Billion
Beyond the immediate humanitarian emergency, Nepal faces a potentially enormous reconstruction challenge.
The preliminary $4 billion to $5 billion estimate covers rebuilding after extensive damage to roads, bridges, homes, hydropower installations and other infrastructure.
The figure remains an early government estimate rather than a finalized loss assessment.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry has acknowledged “extensive damage” to houses, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and other critical infrastructure and said the government would communicate specific international assistance requirements as its assessment develops.
The combination of thousands of missing people, damaged infrastructure, technically difficult tunnel rescues and the continuing risk from unstable water bodies means the disaster remains an active emergency.
For Nepal, the immediate priority remains locating survivors and stabilizing affected communities. But the government’s initial reconstruction estimate makes clear that recovery from one of the country’s most destructive recent disasters could continue for years.
