Nearly 1,000 Hydropower Workers Missing After Bhotekoshi Flood

Kathmandu: Nearly 1,000 people working in hydropower stations, projects and electrical infrastructure in the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli flood-hit area are still missing.

The whereabouts of those workers associated with hydropower have remained unknown for the past 10 days since the catastrophe took place on August 26.  Employees and workers of 10 hydropower stations and projects, one substation and one distribution center are reported to be missing.

Despite continuous efforts by the search and rescue team including the government, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), and Nepal Army, the missing people have not been found. Of those, 805 have lost contact with the project site and infrastructure area. Similarly, 172 people are still trapped inside the tunnels.

It was only on Friday, the rescue team received success to safely evacuate two people from the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli 3 ‘A’ Hydropower Station. As total of 40 people are still missing from the center, there is the least hope for the others to be rescued alive.

Likewise, the rescue team safely evacuate a Chinese citizen from the Upper Trishuli-1 on Saturday. The Upper Trishuli-1 has the maximum number of 576 people missing, while the search and rescue operation is reported not being effective. When a rescue team including the army entered the main tunnel that carries water from the dam area of ​​the project up to 40 meters, it was found that the tunnel was buried by the excavators and other equipment used in the project and large stones. 

Similarly, being unable to take large excavators and other equipment to the site, rescue operations have not been effective in the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Station, where 92 people have been missing. This includes 12 people missing from the tunnel. In Upper Trishuli 3 'B', a total of 191 people has remained missing. Although the flood brought hundreds of feet of mud and stones to bury the project structures, it was found that the use of small excavators took time in the excavation work.

The challenge has increased as Nepal does not have a large-capacity helicopter to transport large excavators and there is no place to land at the project site, said Leela Aryal, head of administration at Trishuli Hydropower Company. ‘Efforts are being made to separate the parts of the large excavator and transport them to the project site,’ she said. ‘It seems that rapid progress in search and rescue cannot be made without bringing in a large excavator.’

According to her, 141 people from Fewa Construction Company, 21 from the project promoter company, 12 from Chilime Engineering Company Limited, three students from Kathmandu University who went for an internship, four Chinese and two Nepalese from the contractor company, and a security guard are still missing in Trishuli-3 ‘B’.

Similarly, 19 people have been rescued safely from Langtang, where 60 people were missing. While two bodies have recovered, 39 people are still missing. Although there was a possibility that more people could have been rescued if the project's technical team had been allowed to go for rescue at the beginning, the government failed to do so, said Krishna Prasad Acarya, chairman of the project promoter RM Group. He said that the search and rescue work is still ongoing.

Six people are unaccounted for in the powerhouse and tunnel of the Chilime Hydropower Center. The Chilime Hydropower's Managing Director Babu Raja Maharjan said that due to the inability to bring large excavators to the project, there has been no rapid progress in excavation, search and rescue.

As every moment after a major disaster is crucial, the families and relatives of the unaccounted-for employees and workers have been pressuring the government not to delay in bringing large equipment, including excavators, to the affected areas for rescue.

Breakdown of number of hydropower employees without contact