Rescue teams in Nepal were still searching Wednesday for hundreds of workers believed to have been trapped inside sprawling hydropower tunnels since the catastrophic flash flood that swept through the Himalayan region last week. Officials said that many of the tunnels remain totally blocked by mud and debris.
Nepali rescuers searched Wednesday for survivors feared trapped inside hydropower tunnels a week after devastating floods, but hopes were fading as teams hit dead ends and no one was confirmed alive.The government had said initially it believed that more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.
"The search and rescue operation is still underway, and foreign teams are also supporting it at the hydropower tunnels," said Shanti Mahat, spokeswoman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
"They are continuing to work despite difficulties. There is a heavy volume of mud and debris and sludge."
Those feared trapped are among 639 hydropower workers missing since a wall of mud and debris swept down on August 26, according to NDRRMA figures.
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"In some cases it has been difficult to find the entry points and, even when they have been found, the rescuers have found the tunnels blocked inside," Mahat told AFP. "But efforts continue."
Rescuers pulled at least three bodies out of two tunnels on Monday, and entered several hundred metres into some tunnels, but were stopped by mud.
"We have access to all the tunnels, but it's problematic to get inside, as there are rocks and sludge," Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told reporters on Tuesday.
Despite the challenges, a Nepal Electricity Authority official on Wednesday maintained that there was a high chance that dozens of workers may be found alive in an underground chamber at Nepal's Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant.
"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.
"We are very confident that they must be alive after one week because ... they have food and water over there in the building."
The Nepal Electricity Authority said 11 hydropower stations and one solar power station, with a combined capacity of 431.1 megawatts, had stopped operating, about 10 percent of the country's installed electricity generation capacity.
Another 15 power projects under construction, with a planned capacity of 470 megawatts, were damaged.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
