Landslides and Floods Strike Again Amid Nepal Flood Recovery... Two Hydropower Plant Workers Killed

Landslide at Kaski Construction Site; Four Homes and Bridge Washed Away in Gorkha
Death Toll from Major Floods Exceeds 1,300, Over 5,000 Missing; Fears of Further Damage

As recovery efforts continue in Nepal following devastating floods that have left at least 1,300 people dead and over 5,000 missing, additional landslides and floods have been reported in central regions further west from the core disaster area.

Flood damage site at Namrung River, Gorkha District, Gandaki Province, Central Nepal. Photo by Kathmandu Post

According to reports from the Associated Press and local outlets such as the Kathmandu Post on September 6 (local time), a landslide occurred around 11:00 a.m. the previous day at the construction site of the Super Seti hydropower plant in Machhapuchchhre Rural Municipality, Kaski District, Gandaki Province in central Nepal, killing two workers and injuring another.

The accident happened when soil and debris suddenly cascaded down from higher ground during excavation work on the approach road to the plant. Local residents and police rescued the buried workers and transported them to Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, but 26-year-old Ayushi Rai and 27-year-old Kishan Rai died during treatment. Bhakta Bahadur Magar, aged 32, sustained a knee injury, but his life is not in danger.

The Super Seti hydropower plant is a 24MW-capacity project under construction in Kaski District. According to data from Nepal’s Department of Electricity Development and the Independent Power Producers’ Association, its installed capacity is registered as 24MW.

Later, at around 3:30 a.m. on September 6, flooding occurred at the Namrung River in Ward 4 of Chumnubri Rural Municipality, Gorkha District, Gandaki Province. Four mud-built homes were damaged and a metal pedestrian and livestock bridge connecting Narbu and Lo was swept away. No casualties have been reported as of now.

The affected area is a remote mountainous region not connected by roads, requiring about two days of walking from the center of Gorkha District. Local police have dispatched personnel from the Larke police outpost to the scene to check for any additional damage.

These landslides and floods occurred while search and recovery work was still underway following major floods that struck northern districts such as Rasuwa and Nuwakot on August 26.

According to the Associated Press, the flooding that began on August 26 has killed at least 1,300 people so far, with more than 5,000 still missing. Authorities believe that a glacier collapse near the Chinese border was likely a primary cause of the catastrophic flooding.

The damage to hydropower facilities has been particularly severe. Nepalese authorities report that around 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower project sites across the country, with approximately 500 of them possibly trapped inside tunnels. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, the United States, and other countries are participating in the search operations.

On the previous day, a Chinese worker who had been trapped in a hydropower tunnel and a woman who had been buried under the rubble of a collapsed house were rescued, ten days after the disaster first struck. The Chinese worker was freed from a 225-meter-long tunnel at the Trishuli hydropower plant, and is reported to be in stable condition.

Local media report that about 431MW of power generation capacity in Nepal has been disrupted by the floods, and ongoing landslides and destroyed roads have made it challenging to reach affected areas.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.