By Gopal Sharma, Liz Lee and Ethan Wang
KATHMANDU/BEIJING, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Nepal will have to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, authorities said on Thursday, as rescuers continued to search for workers trapped in tunnels linked to hydropower projects and thousands remain missing after last week’s catastrophe.
A glacier collapse on August 26 sent a deluge of ice, rock and mud sweeping through the impoverished nation’s border region with China, wiping out settlements and villages and leaving few houses standing and undamaged.
“Our preliminary estimates are that 7,500 houses have been completely destroyed, either washed away or buried under debris and mud,” Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Reuters.
Even houses still standing were not habitable, Upreti said, with authorities estimating that around 20,000 would have to be rebuilt in different, safer locations.
“We anticipate that the resources required for rebuilding will be substantial,” Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told foreign ambassadors in Kathmandu.
At least 1,252 people were killed in Nepal last week as houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet were swept away. More than 4,200 people are still missing and thousands more displaced.
China has put the death toll in Tibet at 21, with 541 others listed as missing.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s cabinet set September 7, the 13th day after the disaster, as a day of national mourning in Nepal, the cabinet spokesperson said. In Hindu tradition, the 13th day traditionally marks the end of the formal mourning period.
SEARCH FOR MISSING CONTINUES
More than 9,300 Nepali army troops were on the ground in the affected areas of Timure in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and Nawalparasi East, coordinating search and rescue of the injured and helping with management of bodies, clearing blocked roads, and providing emergency medical treatment, an army statement said.
An Australian medical student whose partner went missing near the Nepal-China border urged tech companies to do more to help find him and others caught up in the disaster by sharing tracking data that could narrow the search areas for rescue teams.
At least 583 foreign nationals were missing in the floods, Nepal said on Thursday, many of them pilgrims and trekkers.
An army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the search was continuing with experts from India, South Korea and China for at least 900 survivors believed to be trapped in the tunnels related to hydropower projects.
Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said two bodies had been recovered from the tunnel of Langtang Khola hydropower plant.
Australia pledged additional support and said it would also share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities.
China has sent a third batch of aid to Nepal, including tents, blankets, medical protective suits and satellite communication equipment, the foreign ministry said, adding that the weather offices of the two countries were in contact with each other.
Reports on the rescue efforts in Tibet, largely provided by Chinese state media as foreign reporters’ access to the region is restricted, have slowed a day after the G216 national highway leading to the site was reopened.
Both China and Nepal have said the floods were a result of climate change, with foreign minister Khanal telling ambassadors that the disaster had a “deeper significance” beyond the immediate emergency.
“Nepal contributes a negligible share of global emissions, yet our people bear a disproportionate burden of the impacts of a warming Himalayas,” he said.
GETTING CHILDREN BACK TO SCHOOL
Authorities were working to restore regular routines as much as possible, with a focus on getting children into makeshift schools.
More than a week after the flood, at least 22,000 children urgently need safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene support, UNICEF said in a statement.
“Our priority is to restore normal life. We are considering if children can be taught in the holding centres,” said Phanindra Paudel, an official at Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Centre.
Finding safe buildings in which to hold classes was a challenge, teachers said.
“We are looking for safe, empty buildings or other schools where we can resume classes. The school building was completely washed away, so we will have to build a new one in a safer location,” said Rajendra Dawadi, headmaster of a school, who helped save about 900 students by evacuating them in time.
Shanti Sunar, 45, escaped the disaster with her husband but lost her house and a small shop she ran.
“I have been visiting the site almost every day. I can recognise where our house stood, but there is no trace of it now. We cannot rebuild at the same location because it is not safe. I expect the government to relocate us to a safer place.”
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma, Hee Jung Jung, Liz Lee and Ethan Wang; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Tom Hogue, Alexandra Hudson, YP Rajesh and Alex Richardson)
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