Dozens of trapped hydropower tunnel workers in Nepal could still be alive, official says

There is a high chance that dozens ⁠of workers may be found alive after a week trapped in an underground chamber at Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant after deadly flash floods, a ⁠Nepal electricity authority official has said.

“In ​Rasuwagadhi, we think 46 people are trapped in a room-like structure in the tunnel,” Amhsu Kiran Shahi, a board member of the Nepal ⁠electricity authority, told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We are very confident that they must be alive after one week because ... they have food and water over there in the building.”

So ⁠far, Nepali authorities have rescued 279 people from hydropower projects swamped by the unprecedented deluge ​of ice, rock, mud and debris, triggered by ‌the collapse of a glacier.

But at least 639 more were still missing, some of whom ‌are believed to be trapped in tunnels linked to the hydropower projects, where Nepali, Indian and Chinese rescue teams are digging to find survivors.

The flood, triggered by the glacial collapse near Nepal’s border with Tibet, devastated towns and valleys across the mountainous region. At least 1,204 people have been confirmed dead and more than 4,200 remain missing.

Rescue efforts have increasingly centred on hydroelectric project tunnels where authorities believe workers may ⁠have survived after being cut off by flood waters and debris.

Major rescue operations were under way or planned at four hydropower projects. Two sites, where about 90 people are missing, offered the strongest prospect of finding survivors because of the presence of air inside the tunnels, Shahi said.

The Rasuwagadhi hydroelectric project, a 111-megawatt facility located in the hard-hit Rasuwa district that lies in a mountain valley about 5km away from the border, was one site rescuers were trying to access on Wednesday.

“This is the only project where it’s possible to walk through ‌the tunnel,” Shahi said. “The army tried doing that three days ago, but they didn’t find the room. We are going in again.”

Rescuers are also looking for ​survivors believed to be trapped inside tunnels at other locations, where powerhouses have spaces and rooms for people to stay, according to Nepali army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet.

At the Upper Trishuli 3A facility, another project hit by the floods, it took rescue workers almost six days to find the tunnels ⁠because of thick mud, Shahi said.

“We are expecting [survivors] in there because we ​are told there is a ​dry space inside. We are ​trying to break into the tunnel now,” he said.

“We are using every technology ​available in Nepal ‌right now, and we ​are taking help ​from the Indians, Chinese, Koreans. We have experts from Australia too.”

The disaster created at least 2.2m tonnes of debris, according to a preliminary estimate by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), including parts of buildings, rocks and sediment – the equivalent of six Empire State Buildings.

The chance of finding survivors elsewhere was fading, authorities said, but there was no let up in rescue operations as teams scoured the mountainside ​along the border with China where floods tore through towns and valleys.

“The hope of finding survivors is ‌decreasing,” Phanindra Paudel, a senior official at Nepal’s national emergency ‌operation centre said on Wednesday. “We pray and are hopeful. Hope is hope.”