Nepal Flood Survivors and Himalayan Hydropower Risks

One month after a catastrophic flash flood struck a Himalayan river valley, Mita and Hemant Parikh of Suwanee, Georgia, are home while the 47-person pilgrimage group they traveled with remains missing. The Parikhs had spent 15 years hoping to make a spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Their group included families from the United States and Australia, children, and seven guides. The tour company told CBS News Atlanta that none of the missing people had been found, either alive or deceased. The couple had planned to rejoin their fellow travelers in Saga, but an unexpected gap in their itinerary led them to take a side trip to Lhasa and Everest Base Camp. They said the decision was unusual for them, but they agreed to go. While they were away, the flood swept through the valley where the rest of the group was staying. At first, they did not understand the danger. With limited access to news and a language barrier, they initially thought their companions had simply been delayed. Their tour operator later flew over the area and reported that the hotel where the group had been staying was gone. Back in Atlanta, the Parikhs are coping with grief, uncertainty, and questions about why they survived. Mita imagines the ordinary morning her friends may have been having before the flood and continues to hope that someone reached shelter and may still be found. Hemant wonders whether he could have done anything to help. Mita says the experience has changed how she thinks about caring for others and spending time with people, but she keeps returning to the side trip that separated them from the group. The couple still has no answer for why they made it home, or what purpose their survival might hold.

Mita and Hemant Parikh, a couple from Suwanee, Georgia, returned safely from a 15-year-planned pilgrimage to Mount Kailash after a catastrophic flash flood swept through a Himalayan river valley where the rest of their tour group was staying. The group included 47 pilgrims, among them families from the United States and Australia, children, and seven guides. Nearly a month later, the tour company reported that the missing travelers and guides had not been found, either alive or deceased. The Parikhs survived because they took an unplanned side trip to Lhasa and Everest Base Camp before they were due to meet the group again in Saga. They said the decision was unusual for them, but they agreed to go. While they were away, a flood destroyed the hotel where their fellow travelers had been staying. At first, the couple did not grasp the scale of the disaster: they had limited access to news, a language barrier, and phones set to silent. When they checked their messages, loved ones were urgently trying to learn whether they were safe. After waiting in vain for the group and hearing that the hotel had vanished, the Parikhs returned to Atlanta carrying grief, guilt, and unanswered questions. Mita imagines the ordinary breakfast the others may have been having when the flood struck and still hopes that some may have reached shelter. Hemant wonders whether he could have done something to help. The experience has prompted Mita to think about caring more for others and finding purpose in having survived, but both continue to struggle with why their lives were spared while their companions remain missing.

A devastating flash flood in Nepal’s Trishuli River valley on Aug. 26 followed the collapse of a glacier and its bedrock, sending waves of water, ice and boulders downstream. The disaster destroyed bridges, roads and buildings, buried 12 hydropower plants, and left more than 1,400 people dead and over 5,000 unaccounted for. Among those missing are workers trapped in the plants, including the husband of protester Sumana Shrestha Amatya. Rescue teams have found only three survivors in the facilities so far. The disaster has renewed scrutiny of hydropower development in the Himalayas. Critics question whether project assessments adequately considered the combined risks of building numerous plants along one river, as well as the effects of blasting and tunneling in a region prone to earthquakes and landslides. The Trishuli basin has 36 hydropower projects, and critics say assessments often consider each project individually rather than the cumulative impact across the river system. The Upper Trishuli-1 project, backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was still under construction when it was buried. Experts disagree about whether construction contributed to this particular disaster. Geoscientist C.P. Rajendran and river advocate Parineeta Dandekar argue that development risks have not been properly assessed. Hydropower engineer Dipak Gyawali says the tectonic forces behind the event far outweighed the effects of construction. The article notes that there is no clear evidence the projects caused the flood’s severity, while climate change likely intensified glacier melt. The Trishuli basin has experienced deadly flooding three years in a row, and a paper published days before the disaster warned of its vulnerability. The World Bank said the project design reflected assessments available in 2018 and that it would consider new information. The Asian Development Bank had not responded to a question about whether a climate resilience assessment was ultimately completed, after independent experts identified its absence as a significant gap. The article concludes with tunneling expert Arnold Dix defending the plants’ construction, though the supplied text ends before his full comment.

Mita and Hemant Parikh, a couple from Suwanee, Georgia, survived devastating floods in Nepal after an unplanned decision to leave their pilgrimage group and take a side trip to view Mount Everest. The couple had spent 15 years planning a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred Hindu site. Traveling with 47 others and seven guides, they impulsively agreed to visit Everest. When they later tried to return to their group, they discovered that the hotel where the others had been staying had been swept away by flooding. The Parikhs’ detour appears to have spared them from the disaster. Several families in their group and all of its guides were among more than 6,000 people reported missing, including 85 Americans, according to the Associated Press. Mita told CBS Atlanta that she is haunted by memories of Mount Kailash and the people they left behind. Hemant said he cannot understand why he and his wife may be the only members of the group to have survived. Mita wondered whether their survival had a purpose. The article describes widespread destruction across Nepal, including damage to homes, roads, a bridge, and a hydropower station. It reports that the disaster’s death toll had risen to more than 530, while its closing sentence says flooding had claimed at least 1,400 lives so far. It also includes the account of Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah, who survived for 10 days in a flooded tunnel, drinking muddy water before being rescued.