[Image: Newsdesk]
Six South Africans remain missing as the official death toll in Nepal climbed past 900 on Monday.
According to IOL and Jacaranda FM reports, four of the missing South Africans are from Ladysmith, with Jacaranda naming them as Vivaganathan Pillay, 66, his wife Janet Pillay, 56, Surendranath Maharaj, 74, and Anita Maharaj, 67, with Terricia Govender, 33, from Isipingo and Bhavika Ramjee, 43, from East London also unaccounted for.
Ladysmith residents are praying for the six after last week’s floods and mudslides along the Nepal-China border. The scale of the disaster is genuinely devastating. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 903 bodies or human remains had been recovered so far, and the missing count is constantly growing.
The Kathmandu Post put Nepal’s disaster agency figure at 4 247 people missing, including 592 foreigners. Radio Nepal has, meanwhile, put the missing figure at 4 347.
The flooding hit the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems after a torrent of water, mud, ice and debris tore through Himalayan valleys on Wednesday.
The Guardian reported that rescuers were trying to reach 933 people believed to be missing from hydropower projects in the flood-hit region.
Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told The Guardian: “A large amount of debris has been deposited, and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels.”
Ashish Gurung, a guide helping with rescue efforts at Chilime Hydropower in Rasuwa, described mud so deep that teams had to use planks and ropes to move through the tunnels.
“Walking in it is very difficult; at one point it was up to our chests,” Gurung told The Guardian. “We got close to the first station, about 130 metres in. Inside that far, you could [see further in]; it looked like it was just bodies.”
The Guardian reported that Nepal’s prime minister, Balendra Shah, called the flood an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster” and said almost 21 000 security personnel were involved in rescue operations.
The Kathmandu Post said 10 451 people had been rescued with the Nepali Army’s helicopter rescues, including 3 344 Nepali citizens and 252 foreign nationals.
[Sources: IOL, Jacaranda FM, The Kathmandu Post, Radio Nepal, AP & The Guardian]
