After the flood: Nepal’s ongoing rescue
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What caused the catastrophic flash flood in Nepal and how did it happen?
The Economist.
Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm Rosie Blore.
And I'm Jason Palmer.
Today on the show, Does AI Stop Kids Learning? And why Japan's music cafes are striking a chord abroad?
First up though.
In Nepal, the desperate recovery effort continues. Rescuers are still searching for hundreds of people trapped in hydropower tunnels since the giant floods last Wednesday. Engineers are pumping air into those tunnels, many of which filled with mud after the waters crashed through. Entire villages were swallowed in a surge that reached up to 180 kilometers an hour. Devastation wrought in a flash, now the long aftermath.
Nepur has witnessed an unusually vicious disaster, which might be on its way to becoming the deadliest flood in the nation's history. It's already one of the costliest natural disasters it has seen in modern times. Kira Huyu is our Asia correspondent. Entire villages have been swept out, the morks are overrun with mangled bodies, and at the same time, unfortunately, such tragedies are only about to get much less unusual. Just at a time when Nepal becomes less ready to face them.
Kiri, we're nearly a week on now from the first flood. At the time there was a bit of uncertainty about what happened. What do we now know for sure?
At eight thirty seven in the morning on August twenty sixth, we had a collapsing glacier and ice rock avalanche that crashed down into a valley in Tibet and dammed the Lenda River. Three minutes later that dam breached. It released a torrent of water and rock and mud and ice down the Borticoshi and Trishuli rivers in the Roswa district of Nepal.
More this is a this is for a hydropower mechanic.
One of our reporters spoke to Shibugiri, a local, who at nine o'clock in the morning watched the wave sweep away an entire suspension bridge. And by the time that that wave tossed up his truck, he had escaped into the forest. And Mr. Giri is one of the lucky ones. He slept in a cave, survived and collected rainwater and a handful of picked berries. And then the following afternoon was picked up by an army helicopter.
How many people have been killed or are still missing after the Nepal floods?
And just how big a disaster is this?
Any footage that you see out of Nepal looks like the apocalypse has arrived. We know that around a thousand people have lost their lives, and around 4,000 are still missing. Those numbers for the dead are likely to go up and up in the days to come. This includes almost 600 missing foreigners, among them lots of pilgrims, especially.
Kira, as you said, this is on its way to becoming Nepal's deadliest flood. But of course, Nepal has had other disasters recently too. Why is that?
That's right. This is the second major flood on the same river tributary in 14 months, and another flash flood, which was paired with a landslide, killed 244 people just under two years ago. And in twenty fifteen, there was a seven point eight magnitude earthquake, which to date is the deadliest natural disaster in Nepal's history. Now, some of this is down to Nepal being geographically very unlucky. It sits where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates grind against each other and where a hot, wet monsoon breeze collides with the freezing winds and unstable slopes of the Himalayas. And now that means that Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone places on the entire planet. But those disasters will also now get deadlier and more common.
And that's because the countries nestled within the Hindukush Himalaya, which is a vast and an increasingly erratic climate region, which is also known as the Earth's third pole. That region is heating faster than the rest of the world and its glaciers are melting twice as fast as they did back in two thousand. But it's not entirely just about Nepal being unlucky, the countries also aren't prepared for such events.
You say it's unprepared. What has its response been like?
Nepal is overwhelmed cost of recovery is piling up. It could go up as high as five billion dollars. And all of this is happening while Nepal's ability to weather such crisis is waning. So it's already among the poorest countries in the world.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What caused the catastrophic flash flood in Nepal and how did it happen?
0:03–3:06
2
How many people have been killed or are still missing after the Nepal floods?
3:06–5:53
3
Why is Nepal especially vulnerable to floods, landslides and earthquakes?
5:53–8:54
4
What has Nepal’s government done so far to respond to the disaster and why is it struggling?
8:54–11:18
5
How is the international community (US, UN Climate Fund, etc.) supporting Nepal’s recovery?
11:18–13:38
6
Are students in China using AI to cheat, and how does it affect their exam performance?
13:38–15:09
7
What are Japan’s ongaku kissa (listening bars) and why are they spreading worldwide?
15:09–16:09
8
How do modern listening bars like Space Talk create a unique music‑first experience?
16:09–16:11