A Month On, Nepal Floods Leave Thousands Missing and a Costly Rebuild

A month after floods tore through parts of Nepal, thousands of people remain displaced and rescue teams are still searching for those unaccounted for, including many feared trapped inside six hydropower project tunnels.

The disaster has left families grieving the loss of relatives, homes and livelihoods, while the government confronts a recovery effort it estimates will cost $4.77 billion. Nearly 33,000 people have been affected and about 7,500 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Nepal's disaster management agency said 1,453 bodies have been recovered, while 5,644 people remain missing. Only 112 bodies have been handed over to relatives; 1,333 were temporarily buried pending identification. Officials in neighbouring China reported that 261 foreign nationals were among the missing.

At the Nepal Police Hospital in Kathmandu, tents have been set up for relatives to give DNA samples that authorities are matching against remains recovered from the floods. Laboratory officials declined to give details, citing privacy, but said experts from India, China, the United States, Singapore and South Korea were helping with the identification work.

For many families, the wait has compounded the loss. Rabi Kumar Thapa Magar, a hydropower worker, lost his wife, brother, sister-in-law and mother. He identified his wife from a photograph of the dead, but authorities had already buried her body before the family could see it. They declined to release the body pending DNA matching, a process expected to take at least a month, and the family later performed symbolic final rites using an effigy.

Pasang Maya Tamang, 32, lost her young son in the floods and said she still dreams of him pleading for help. Her son had gone to school with a neighbour when the water struck; by the time she learned what had happened, the school had been swept away. His body was recovered three days later in a southern district, but she could not travel there to see him.

"The body of my son has been recovered but I was not able to see him for the last time. I am very sad about that. I hear in my dreams him saying why I left him alone," Tamang said at a shelter home in the flood-hit town of Nuwakot.

The flood struck on the morning of Aug. 26, around the time students were arriving at school or on their way there. Asta Man Dangol, a Nuwakot resident, said some children's bodies were later found still wearing ties bearing their school's logo. Older students managed to run uphill to safety, he said, but the younger ones who could not run fast were swept away.

Narayan Prassan's story reflects the repeated blows dealt by disasters in Nepal. After five years working in Saudi Arabia, he returned home with savings only to lose his house in the 2015 earthquake. He went abroad again, earned enough to rebuild and settled with his family — until last month's floods destroyed everything once more. With his home now in a designated danger zone and no clear plan for resettlement, he is staying with relatives and considering another stint overseas.

"This flood has taken everything," he said. "I don't know what to do."

Prime Minister Balendra Shah used his first address to the U.N. General Assembly to draw international attention to the flooding, calling it a warning about the climate risks facing the Himalayan region. "The disaster was not just a local tragedy, but a warning to the world," he said, asking whether the warning had truly been heard. He urged greater international support for Nepal's recovery and stronger regional cooperation on climate-related disasters, noting that "climate change does not recognize borders."

On the ground, the recovery effort is focused on reopening roads and bridges cut off by the floods, particularly in remote areas where damaged infrastructure has hampered the delivery of aid. Roads engineer Ishmita Shah said crews have worked with the Nepal army since the second day after the floods to restore routes in affected areas, and that bridges are being built to improve access and ease the transport of relief supplies. More bad weather is expected in the coming days, she said.

"The upcoming few days are going to be very challenging because of the weather, but we are fully prepared for that too," Shah said.