Nepalese Experts, Victims Contemplate the Future After the Flood

Subash Tamang, rescued from the Bhotekoshi flood, is under treatment at Kathmandu Trauma Center; three of his family members are still missing. Credit: Sunita Neupane/IPSby Sunita Neupane (kathmandu)Friday, September 04, 2026Inter Press Service KATHMANDU, September 4 (IPS) - That day, Subash Tamang was mining sand along the banks of the Trishuli River near the Trishuli Hydropower Project, working alongside his wife, brother, sister-in-law, and two other family members. Suddenly, he noticed water gushing down from above the hydropower site. His first thought was that the dam had burst. In an instant, everything changed. He and his family dropped everything and ran toward the river, desperate to save their lives. But then he saw something even more terrifying—huge waves of water were surging from the other side too, carrying clouds of dust and thick black mud.“I couldn’t make sense of what was happening,” he recalls. “It looked like a monster coming at us.”He was holding his wife’s hand, trying to run toward the hill, when the flood swept him away—carrying him nearly 500 metres downstream. Helplessly, he watched as the same raging waters took his wife, his brother, his sister-in-law,...