Rescue crews in Nepal spent Monday, 31 August 2026 trying to open hydropower tunnels that last week’s flood filled with mud and rock. The country’s disaster authority said 933 workers were still missing from projects in the hard-hit districts of Rasuwa and Nuwakot. Across Nepal, officials counted 903 confirmed deaths and 4,247 people missing — including hundreds of foreign nationals.
The flood began on 26 August, when a wall of ice, rock, and debris tore down the Bhote Koshi / Trishuli corridor after what Chinese and Nepali officials have described as a glacier collapse on the Nepal–Tibet border. It is one of the Himalayan country’s worst disasters in years.
What crews are doing at the tunnels
The Nepal Army said teams were using controlled blasts, excavators, and searchlights to clear water and debris. A blast at the Trishuli 3A site around 2 a.m. Monday was meant to open a way in. Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said the volume of debris was the main obstacle: “Our main focus is on opening the tunnels.”
A search of the Rasuwagadhi hydropower tunnel found no survivors. Other sites still being worked include Upper Trishuli 1, Trishuli 3A, and Trishuli 3B. Earlier in the week, officials said 191 people were pulled from tunnels on Friday and 88 more on Saturday. That is why Monday’s push still had a rescue, not only a recovery, frame.
Hydropower tunnels exist because Nepal’s plants sit on steep river drops. Water is diverted through the mountain to a powerhouse. When a debris flood hits the intake, the same tunnels become traps.
The wider count
Bodies have been recovered far downstream — Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Gorkha, Dhading, Tanahu — as the torrent carried people into the plains. Hundreds of unidentified bodies were buried in shallow graves as heat sped decomposition. The Red Cross estimated more than 90,000 people were affected. Nepal’s foreign ministry said about 590 foreign nationals from 39 countries were still missing, and that more than 10,000 people had been rescued from the flood belt, including 323 foreigners.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah called the flood unprecedented and said a full damage assessment was still out of reach. Nearly 21,000 security personnel were involved, he said, besides civilian workers and volunteers.
What to watch next
Weather has already forced pauses. A lake formed across the Nepal–China border after the collapse has overflowed into Nepali rivers, and Chinese state media warned that nearby glaciers and landslide deposits could still fail. Further rain was forecast in the north.
This brief is an original summary of public reporting on 31 August 2026. Casualty figures move as recovery continues.
