Nepal Flash Floods: Hydropower Firm Plans Search for 150 Missing Workers

The devastating flash floods that swept through parts of Nepal on August 26 have left hundreds of people missing, with hydropower projects among the worst-affected sites. Nepal’s disaster management authorities said on Monday evening that 639 people were still missing at 15 hydropower project sites, including projects that were still under construction.

Among the most difficult searches is the effort to locate around 150 workers associated with the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project in the Rasuwa region.

In central Kathmandu, a team from Austrian engineering company Andritz, a subcontractor involved in supplying and installing machinery for hydropower projects, has created a temporary “war room” to coordinate its own search efforts.

The team has been working with maps and satellite imagery to identify possible locations where workers could have been stranded after the sudden surge of water, mud and debris.

Around 150 workers still missing

Sources within the company said around 150 of its more than 250 Indian and Nepali workers were still missing several days after the disaster. Their exact condition remains unknown.

The Upper Trishuli-1 project is located around 70 km north of Kathmandu and about 30 km east of Nepal’s border with Tibet. The project, planned with a capacity of 216 MW, was expected to become the largest hydropower project in the Bhote Koshi river corridor.

The devastating flood has made access to the area extremely difficult. Roads have been damaged and large stretches are covered with mud and debris, making it impossible for conventional rescue vehicles to reach several locations.

Helicopter, vehicles and trekking teams

The company has been sharing information about its workers, including their last known coordinates, with the Nepalese Army. It had also previously hired a helicopter to drop food packets for stranded workers.

The firm received permission to use a helicopter to directly participate in the search operation. However, bad weather forced the cancellation of one planned flight.

The next plan involves sending four people by helicopter, weather permitting, while another team of eight people will travel in two four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The road journey could take around 10 hours. Once the vehicles can no longer proceed, members of the team plan to continue on foot.

Their objective is simple: locate as many missing workers as possible, whether alive or dead.

Searching a 15-km stretch

The scale of the affected region is making the search particularly difficult.

According to Andritz officials, the workers could be scattered across a stretch of nearly 15 kilometres. The team has identified five locations where it believes the chances of finding missing people are relatively higher.

Two locations have emerged as particular priorities — the workers’ camp and the inlet of the tunnel.

The company does not currently have heavy equipment capable of digging deep into collapsed tunnels. However, officials hope that at least some workers may be located in areas that can be searched without major excavation.

The company believes some workers could have been swept towards the riverbed, while others may have become trapped around tunnel entrances or inside the project area.

A race against time

For the search teams, every passing day is critical.

The flood occurred on August 26, and by the time the company was preparing its search operation, almost a week had passed. The uncertainty over the fate of the missing workers has left the team struggling between hope and the harsh reality of the disaster.

Even basic coordination has proved difficult. Weak mobile signals and unreliable internet connectivity at the Kathmandu hotel where the team was working complicated efforts to access updated satellite imagery.

The team eventually managed to obtain access to additional Google Earth imagery, but even that did not provide real-time images of the devastated region.

Nepal’s wider hydropower crisis

The situation at Upper Trishuli-1 is only one part of a much larger disaster.

Nepal’s authorities reported that hundreds of people remained missing across 15 hydropower project sites. Some of these projects were still under construction, leaving workers and other personnel particularly exposed to the sudden flooding.

Hydropower is a major part of Nepal’s economy and energy strategy, but many projects are located in difficult mountainous terrain, often close to rivers and steep valleys.

The August 26 disaster has therefore raised serious questions about emergency preparedness, communication systems and worker safety at such remote infrastructure sites.

For now, however, the priority remains finding those who are missing.

Inside the Kathmandu “war room”, maps continue to be studied, routes are being planned and possible search locations are being marked. Teams are preparing for a difficult journey involving helicopters, vehicles and long treks through terrain devastated by the floods.

And despite the uncertainty, the search teams have not given up.