A month after devastating flash floods swept through Nepal’s central and northern districts, at least 1,453 people have died and 5,285 remain unaccounted for, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).
NDRRMA said 1,451 bodies have been recovered, while two other victims died while undergoing treatment.
A total of 13,795 people have been rescued so far, the authority said Saturday. Of them, 1,113 are currently staying in 21 holding centres, including 187 from Nuwakot, 805 from Rasuwa and 121 from Dhading districts.
The flash floods, which originated near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, devastated towns and villages across northern and central Nepal.
The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaging hydropower projects.
The disaster also killed 43 people in Tibet, while more than 500 remain unaccounted for, according to Chinese media reports.
In Nepal, security agencies have provided medical treatment to about 11,000 people affected by the floods, NDRRMA said. Seven people injured in the disaster are still undergoing treatment.
Identification of victims remains a challenge
Identifying the dead remains a major challenge a month after the disaster.
Of the 1,453 bodies recovered so far, 112 have been identified and handed over to their families, according to NDRRMA.
Many of the recovered bodies were badly damaged or fragmented, making visual identification difficult. Nepal Police has therefore been relying on DNA profiling to match recovered remains with people reported missing after the floods.
Police said 1,329 DNA samples have been collected from recovered bodies and remains, while another 2,060 samples have been collected from relatives of missing people.
With mortuaries unable to accommodate the large number of recovered bodies, authorities have safely buried many unidentified remains after completing the required procedures and collecting DNA samples and other identifying details.
The samples are being preserved for future comparison. If a match is established, authorities can identify the remains and arrange their handover to the families, according to Nepalese authorities and local media reports.
Nepal Police has also urged relatives of missing people to provide blood samples for DNA profiling.
Police said samples should preferably be provided by a first-degree relative, such as a parent or child. A sibling may provide a sample if a first-degree relative is unavailable.
(With inputs from PTI)
