Nepal floods: Landslides, flash floods kill 11, including Indian and Chinese workers; 25 go missing

Shubham Ghosh

NEPAL HAS witnessed heavy rain this week and it has caused landslides and flash floods that killed 11 people, including an Indian and two Chinese workers at a development project. Twenty-five people also went missing at other places, officials said on Friday (18).

Reuters reported that bodies of the three workers were recovered near Melamchi town in Sindhupalchok district which is located northeast of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Flash floods wreaked havoc in the town on Wednesday (16) and many people were also forced to leave their homes, district administrators informed in a statement.

“The foreign nationals were working for a Chinese company that is building a drinking water project,” Reuters quoted district official Baburam Khanal as saying.

Sources in Nepal home ministry on Thursday (17) informed about 25 people disappearing in the floods in Sindhupalchok, which is a mountainous district that borders China’s Tibet region.

Monsoon rains that generally begin in June and last till September kill hundreds of people Nepal, mostly a mountainous nation, every year.

Heavy rain has been continuing since Tuesday (15) and it has damaged roads and bridges besides washing away fish farms and livestock besides ruining houses. Hundreds of people have taken shelter in community accommodations like schools, sheds and tents, authorities informed.

Personnel from Nepal Army and Armed Police Force were carrying out rescue operations.

Aid agencies fear that it could add to the social and economic woes of Nepal which has already been hit badly by the Covid-19 pandemic. As more people are crowding the shelters and staying close to each other, it raises risks for the country which has been recovering from the pandemic, John Jordan of US-based charity World Neighbors told Reuters.