The water levels in the Bhotekoshi River rose again on Sunday, days after a devastating flash flood struck Nepal, authorities warned, as they urged residents and rescue personnel in flood-hit districts to remain alert.
KATHMANDU — The water levels in the Bhotekoshi River rose again on Sunday, days after a devastating flash flood struck Nepal, authorities warned, as they urged residents and rescue personnel in flood-hit districts to remain alert.
The death toll from the August 26 flash floods surged to 768 on Sunday, while more than 2,500 remain missing, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).
The disaster, believed to have been triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in central Nepal.
The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaging hydropower projects.
In a statement, the NDRRMA warned that water levels in the river had risen again. "The water level in the flooded Bhotekoshi River has risen to some extent; all concerned are urged to take precautionary measures," it said on Sunday, adding that it will provide updates on the situation after receiving additional information.
As many as 2,502 people, including 320 foreigners, remain missing in Nepal following the disaster, according to authorities.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi on Saturday said that more than 275 Indians and 128 persons of Indian origin remained missing or non-contactable, while 108 others were rescued following the flash floods.
According to preliminary data released by Nepal's education ministry, the missing persons include 238 students and 18 teachers from different schools in three flood-affected districts.
Bodies continued to be recovered in the Himalayan nation after the flash floods as search and rescue operations pressed ahead amid intermittent rainfall and rising water levels.
Till Sunday evening, 264 bodies were recovered from Chitawan district alone, followed by 194 in Nawalparasi East, 100 from Nawalparasi West. More bodies were recovered from five other districts - Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Tanahu and Rasuwa, officials said.
In Nepal’s hospitals, which have been witnessing major crowds of people looking for their missing relatives, the focus is increasingly shifting towards identifying the dead.
Photographs have been pasted outside hospital walls, where huge gatherings could be seen scanning them with attention.
However, of the bodies recovered so far, only 17 have been identified, police said, with the condition of many of the remains making identification difficult.
“Only 17 bodies have been identified so far as most of the bodies are either in a dilapidated state or amputated,” said Rajendra Prasad Dhamala, spokesperson for the Bagmati Province Police Office.
Dhamala said 96 bodies had so far been buried after completing the necessary legal procedures. DNA samples were collected from the bodies before burial and preserved in designated places in accordance with existing regulations, he said.
The identified bodies are being handed over to their families after completion of the verification process, Dhamala added.
Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai also said at a press briefing on Sunday that the mortal remains of victims who could not be identified, including those that were unrecognisable, amputated or decomposed due to prolonged exposure to water, had been buried following “standard and accepted protocols”.
“Medical teams take DNA samples from every victim prior to the burial so that families can match records later, and will be allowed to exhume for necessary rituals,” Rai said.
He further said an 18-member team of forensic experts from India specialising in DNA analysis had arrived in Nepal and that coordination between the two countries was continuing.
The disaster also left 16 dead and 546 people missing on the Chinese side, where rescue operations continue at full pace. The missing in Tibet included 261 foreigners from 23 countries, including 49 Indians.
Fears of fresh flooding in Nepal were triggered after a lake formed on the Chinese side following the August 26 Himalayan glacier collapse. However, on Saturday, the threat appeared to recede as the barrier lake’s size began decreasing, according to Chinese media reports.
On Sunday, fresh reports said a landslide near the natural dam had led to the formation of another “dam lake”, prompting rescue personnel to evacuate the area.
Meanwhile, Nepal's meteorology department on Saturday warned of fresh rainfall and thunderstorms in the country's flash flood-affected areas.
The Nepalese government has mobilised nearly 20,000 security personnel for search and rescue operations, while helicopters have been making repeated sorties to evacuate stranded people and deliver relief supplies.
The NDRRMA said more than 8,730 people were rescued from flood-hit areas till Sunday evening.
Transport services have been halted along the Prithvi Highway, a vital roadway linking capital city Kathmandu to Pokhara and western Nepal.
A section of the road was washed away by the Trishuli River at Krishnabhir. Officials said the highway's reopening would take some time, and urged people to use an alternative way for their travel.
Nineteen motorable bridges and several highways and arterial roads were washed away when the flash floods struck the Himalayan nation on August 26.
The flash floods also damaged eight operational hydropower projects with a total capacity of 354 MW and five under-construction projects located in Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts, according to the Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal.
Hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped in at least nine hydropower project sites in the flood-affected areas, particularly in the neighbouring border districts Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
An 11-member team from India is assisting the rescue operations of the trapped workers.
At the Trishuli hydropower project site, Nepalese security personnel, with the assistance of Indian tunnel experts, continued efforts to evacuate those trapped by locating the tunnel's entrance even after Saturday midnight despite heavy rain throughout the night, according to Nepal Army sources.
According to the NDRRMA, 239 people injured in the flash floods were admitted to different hospitals, including Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and Bir Hospital in Kathmandu and Rasuwa District Hospital in Dhunche as on Sunday evening.
So far, 37 trucks of food items and seven helicopters filled with food and non-food items have been dispatched to the affected areas.
India has also provided 68.5 tonnes of relief materials and sent technical teams, forensic experts and equipment to assist in search and rescue operations, according to the Indian embassy.