Rescuers Recover 5 Bodies at Nepal Hydropower Plant After Glacier Flood
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 16
Rescuers Recover 5 Bodies at Nepal Hydropower Plant After Glacier Flood
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 16
Summary
Five male bodies were found Wednesday inside the underground powerhouse at Nepal’s Chilime hydropower project after a weeks-long search for six workers trapped by the Aug. 26 flood.
A sixth worker remains missing, and Nepali Army-led crews working with Indian soldiers and an Australian tunnel expert said the men’s station had been completely swamped.
Rescuers who reached the site described floors buried in silt with only a few air pockets after the tunnel entrance was blocked by boulders, mud and glacial debris.
The flood tore down a Himalayan river corridor after a chunk of glacier and bedrock collapsed, leaving thousands dead or missing across Nepal and Tibet.
With climate change accelerating Himalayan glacier collapses, are underground hydropower projects becoming deadly traps rather than sustainable energy solutions?
Could the financial strength of the Chilime utility mask the devastating human and structural costs of building in high-risk glacial flood zones?