Nepal held a day of mourning Monday to remember those killed in the August 26 floods, with flags lowered at government offices and families concluding mourning rituals.
The government had declared Monday an official day of mourning and ordered flags at government offices lowered to half-staff. Monday was the 13th day since the flooding which killed more than 1,300 people in Nepal and Tibet and left some 5,000 missing, including foreigners, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency.
In Kathmandu, relatives gathered near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries to demand the government speed up search and rescue efforts for hundreds of people who had been working at hydropower plants and were either swept away by the rushing Bhotekhoshi River or buried under debris. “The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle. Specialised rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have been searching through debris, damaged structures and tunnels at the projects.
Another protester, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, held a photograph of his brother Niraj Shrestha, a 52-year-old engineer who worked at the same site. Rescue efforts have focused on 12 hydropower projects, where about 900 workers are missing and roughly 500 are believed to be trapped in various tunnels, authorities said.
“We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already,” she said. He said authorities only sent a small excavator by helicopter on the sixth or seventh day after the disaster, adding: “They should have ordered big helicopters from places like China or India to fly in equipment.
