Shafaqna English– More than a week after a catastrophic glacier collapse unleashed devastation across Nepal’s northern frontier with China, the full extent of the disaster is only now becoming clear, with authorities revealing on Thursday that nearly 20,000 houses will need to be rebuilt in the flood-ravaged districts.
The announcement comes as emergency response operations enter a critical phase, with rescue teams persisting in their search for workers who are believed to be trapped inside tunnels connected to hydropower infrastructure projects that were caught directly in the path of the deadly surge.
The number of missing persons remains staggeringly high, with thousands of Nepali citizens still unaccounted for, many of whom are feared to have been swept away by the relentless torrents of water and debris.
The calamity was set in motion on August 26, when a high-mountain glacier destabilized and collapsed, discharging an overwhelming volume of ice, rock fragments, and mud that raced down the rugged terrain and inundated the impoverished border region.
The ferocity of this glacial flood was such that it annihilated entire communities, sweeping away homes and public buildings with brutal efficiency and leaving behind a landscape so altered that very few structures were left standing, and those that remained were often rendered uninhabitable by the severe damage they had sustained.
Source: Reuters