Devastating floods on the China-Nepal border have killed at least 987 people in Nepal, the disaster authority said on Tuesday, taking overall deaths to more than 1,000.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 people were killed in Tibet, bringing the total toll from Wednesday’s disaster to 1,003.
The number of missing in Nepal dropped to 3,916, as rescue efforts entered a seventh day, and the bodies recovered rose. In China, state media say 546 people are missing, taking the overall number of missing to 4,462.
The missing in Nepal include 583 foreigners from over 30 nationalities. The missing in China include 261 foreigners from 23 countries.
Among the missing foreigners, Indians make up one of the largest proportions, with 275 citizens and another 128 people of Indian origin missing in Nepal, according to New Delhi. There are 85 US citizens missing, according to the State Department on Sunday.
There are also 62 Ukrainians, 51 Malaysians, 42 Australians, and 33 British citizens, according to reports, including both Nepal’s tourist board and embassies.
In India, authorities in Uttar Pradesh state said they had recovered 17 bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be flood victims. Indian authorities are seeking to identify them, and they are not included in the toll.
‘Not an ordinary flood’
Meanwhile, Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah said last week’s deadly Himalayan flood was “not an ordinary” event but driven by climate change, as he demanded international action.
“The flood in the Bhote Koshi River in Rasuwa was not an ordinary flood,” Shah said in a social media post late on Monday.
“It was one of the region’s major disasters, triggered by an avalanche of snow and ice in the Himalayan region,” he said.
While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters.
Scientists say the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, are melting faster as global temperatures rise.
“This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change,” Shah added. “Therefore, this region must remain vigilant.”
Shah said Nepal should press its case internationally.
“It is now time for us to strongly raise with the international community the issue of the disasters we are experiencing as a result of climate change,” he said.
Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people, has contributed little to the emissions driving global warming churned out by wealthy and industrialised nations, but is suffering its consequences.
Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, visiting Nepal in 2023, warned that Himalayan regions were struggling with rapidly melting glaciers and that the “rooftops of the world are caving in”.
Following Wednesday’s disaster, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said it was a “devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be”, he said.
Nepal’s economy is already under pressure, with limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale.
Rescuers reach remote areas, electricity restored
Nepali rescuers built temporary bridges to reach remote areas and dug through the ruins of hydropower projects in the Himalayas to rescue close to 300 trapped workers, nearly a week after the floods.
About 600 people remain stuck in several devastated hydropower stations that have become the focus of rescue efforts, while PM Shah said over 11,000 people have been rescued across the affected region and power and communication lines had been restored in some areas.
Rescue teams had managed to restore road networks to Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected districts, facilitating rescue operations and distribution of relief material, Shah said.
Police official Bipin Regmi said a search team recovered 24 bodies from a house in Betrabati village in Nuwakot district.
“We are reaching new areas and recovering bodies,” Regmi told Reuters.
Aid worth more than $42m had poured into the country after the disaster, Shah said, and the government expected the contributions to increase.
Neighbours India and China, between whom Nepal is wedged, were helping with rescue efforts, including building bailey bridges to reach remote affected areas.
