Nepal rescuers blast hillside in search of hydropower workers as families wait anxiously

"I still have a 50% hope that he is alive because there is an oxygen system inside," Sita Pandey, whose husband was working in the plant when the floods hit, told Nepalese daily Kantipur.Nepal relies heavily on hydropower and has spent years developing the projects along its mountainous river systems. At least 11 projects either completed or under construction were damaged in the floods, authorities said.Rescuers began pumping air into a tunnel over the weekend, but the families of those trapped say that should have been done earlier.A team was able to get into a tunnel leading to one hydropower plant earlier on Monday, but withdrew after finding no one there."The longer it takes, the more our hope dies. This operation must move much faster because every second is meaningful to us," Jiban Khadka, whose relative is also trapped inside the plant, told Kantipur. "It's a frustratingly slow operation," Khadka added.Rescue operations had been "intensified", Nepalese leader Shah said, noting that the floods were "not an ordinary" event."This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change."It is now time for us to strongly raise wi...