Nepal observes day of mourning for flood victims
Nepal held a day of mourning on Monday to remember those killed in the August 26 floods, with flags lowered at government offices and families concluding mourning rituals, reports BritPanorama.
Monday marked the 13th day since the flooding, which killed more than 1,300 people in Nepal and Tibet, leaving approximately 5,000 missing, including some foreigners, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency.
In predominantly Hindu Nepal, mourning periods traditionally last 13 days, during which close family members remain at home as relatives visit to offer their respects. On the final day, rituals are held to pray for the souls of the deceased.
Several families whose relatives remain unaccounted for held symbolic funerals. In Hindu tradition, cremation is a vital final rite, and performing ceremonies without the bodies of loved ones offered some families a sense of spiritual release.
The government declared Monday an official day of mourning, ordering flags at government offices to be flown at half-staff.
Search efforts continued for those missing, while some families expressed frustration at the perceived inadequacy of the government’s response.
In Kathmandu, relatives congregated near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries, demanding that authorities expedite search and rescue operations for hundreds of workers swept away by the Bhotekhoshi River or buried beneath debris from hydropower plants.
Sumana Shrestha, accompanied by family members, displayed a poster with a photograph of her 55-year-old husband, who has not been heard from since the flood. Her husband, a consulting geologist, had promised to return home after his shift at the Trishuli hydropower plant on the day of the disaster. The office, a 2 1/2-story structure, was completely buried under debris.
“We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already,” she noted. “The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle.”
Another protester, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, held a photograph of his brother, Niraj Shrestha, a 52-year-old engineer who worked at the same site. He criticized authorities for sending only a small excavator by helicopter on the sixth or seventh day post-disaster, stating, “They should have ordered big helicopters from places like China or India to fly in equipment.”
Candlelight vigils took place across several locations in Kathmandu to honor those who lost their lives in the flooding.
Search operations concentrated on 12 hydropower projects, with about 900 workers untraceable and roughly 500 believed to be trapped in various tunnels, as reported by authorities. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States are engaged in searching through debris, damaged structures, and the tunnels at these projects.
Two Nepalese workers were rescued from the plant on Friday, and a Chinese national was extracted from the facility on Saturday.
