Flood risks to Nepal hydropower project were known – but banks ignored them

On August 26, Samar Bezbaruah was preparing for a regular day. He had left his home in Assam’s Nalbari district seven months earlier to work in Nepal’s 216-MW Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project. That morning, he walked into the project’s tunnel with a group of 20 others to begin the day’s work.

At around 9.15 am, from within the tunnel, the group saw a colossal mass of water slam into the powerhouse of the project, which was situated in the river valley below them, and in which some colleagues were working.

Bezbaruah and the others rushed out of the tunnel to get to a safer place. Now they saw the full extent of the destruction – roads below had all been engulfed by the crashing water, silt and debris.

“We then climbed a nearby hill,” Bezbaruah told Scroll. “We waited for two days there before we were rescued.”

Bezbaruah returned to his village on Monday evening. Many of his colleagues could not. “From Assam, we were a group of 13, and of these only eight have returned home,” he said. “We do not even know where the rest are. One of them was a relative from my village, we have not been able to contact him.”

He added, “The powerhouse also had people...

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