4.9.2026
Two workers were on Friday rescued from hydropower tunnels blocked by the devastating Nepal flash floods in the Trishuli valley.
The rescue has given hope more than 150 other workers still unaccounted for could still be found.
One of the survivors, Sanjay Sah, says he chanted mantras to help himself through the nine-day ordeal, and managed to stay in contact with three of four others while he was trapped.
The other, Kabir Maharhan, is now in hospital in a critical condition.
Around the same time, a body was retrieved from the tunnel – authorities say it’s likely this person died in floodwaters while attempting to escape.
The men had been underground since Wednesday, 26 August, when a glacier collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border caused catastrophic flash flooding; more than 1,300 people have been confirmed killed, with more than 5,300 still missing.
There are believed to be at least 39 workers still in the Trishuli 3A tunnel – where an expert tells the BBC there could be a “Goldilocks zone” with the right conditions for survival – while more than 100 others are believed to be in similar tunnels along the valley.
Rescue efforts here and in other parts of Nepal remain “extremely challenging”, as a power boss tells the BBC.
But in the words of the country’s energy minister: “As long as there is breath, there is hope.”
Rescue teams work to clear rubble at the Trishuli 3B hydropower station
Nepal’s Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha says “we have not lost hope” that more survivors can be saved, as rescue operations continue across the country.
“As long as there is breath, there is hope!” he writes in a post on social media.
“Rescue operations are continuing in all the affected tunnels. Let everyone’s efforts and prayers continue.”
Shrestha also shared a video of ongoing rescue operations at the Trishuli 3B hydropower site, which is further downstream from the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where two people were rescued this earlier today. BBC