Rescue workers in Nepal’s capital searched amid ruined homes on Monday, after monsoon floods killed at least 192 people throughout the Himalayan country.
Floods and landslides are frequent throughout the monsoon season in South Asia, which runs from June to September, but experts fear climate change is exacerbating the problem.
Entire areas in Kathmandu were submerged by the highest floods in more than two decades, and the capital was temporarily cut off from the rest of Nepal due to landslides blocking highways.
“Our focus is on search and rescue, including people who have been stranded on highways,” Home Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP.
“192 people have been reported dead, and another 31 are missing,” he added.
At least 35 people were buried alive after a landslide ploughed into vehicles on a highway south of Kathmandu, Nepal Police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.
Meanwhile, rescuers in knee-high rubber boots used shovels to clear muck from the worst-hit flooded neighbourhoods around Kathmandu, many of which were illegal slums.
According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a Nepalese think tank, uncontrolled urban sprawl near the Bagmati River, which runs through the capital, exacerbated the calamity.
The Nepalese army reported that over 4,000 people had been evacuated, with helicopters, motorboats, and rafts used to transport stranded houses to safety.
Bulldozers were utilised to clear over two dozen portions of main roadways going into Kathmandu that had become obstructed by debris.
Merchants in Kathmandu said that damage to intercity highways had significantly reduced the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables into the capital.
“The farmers have their produce ready, but with the highways closed, everything is stuck,” Binay Shrestha, a worker at one of the city’s biggest produce markets, told AFP.
According to Nepal’s weather agency, early data from stations in 14 districts showed record-breaking rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to Saturday morning.
A monitoring station at Kathmandu Airport recorded over 240 millimetres (9.4 inches) of rain, the highest total since 2002.
The summer monsoon, which lasts from July to September, provides 70-80 percent of South Asia’s yearly rainfall and is critical for agricultural and food production in a region of around two billion people.
However, monsoon rains can cause widespread death and destruction in the form of floods and landslides. Experts believe climate change has increased their frequency and severity.
This year, more than 300 people died in Nepal due to rain-related calamities.
