RASUWA (Nepal), Sept 2 — Nepali families held symbolic funerals today for relatives missing since deadly flash floods swept away their villages and homes in the Himalayan region a week ago.

Rescue teams have recovered more than 1,100 bodies, and nearly 4,500 people are missing, after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris triggered by a glacial collapse roared down the China-Nepal border on August 26.

In Nepal’s high-altitude Rasuwa district — the first and hardest hit — government official Dhruba Prasad Adhikari said people were confronting an “unimaginable disaster”.

“We have to face the reality: this flood is far bigger than anything we could have thought of,” he told an AFP journalist, who reached the area after a more than 12-hour journey by treacherous mud-covered roads.

In the capital Kathmandu, hundreds queued to give DNA samples, seeking to identify their relatives among hundreds of bodies. With mortuaries overflowing, some of the bodies are already buried.

Others had lost hope and were holding last-rite ceremonies, burning straw effigies in Hindu rituals.

“We had to do this to set his soul free, so that he is at peace and happy wherever he is,” said Dolma Newar Tamang, flanked by her sobbing son, at a funeral for her husband.

Nepali rescuers are still seeking survivors, including by digging through packed sludge that has entombed multiple tunnels of hydropower plants.

So far, rescuers have recovered only bodies from tunnels, but teams were still digging, drilling and blasting through debris.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said he still hoped some of the missing could be alive.

“Miracles do happen,” he told AFP. “At this point, I do not want to completely give up hope.”

‘Global responsibility’ 

There is growing anger at the scale of destruction to hit Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people.

The country has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, but is among those suffering its consequences.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah warned the catastrophe was “a serious indication” of the risks the Himalayan nation faces.

Scientists say the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, are warming rapidly as global temperatures rise, accelerating glacier melt.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people downstream.

“Climate change is a global contribution, and disaster response is also a global responsibility,” Shah said in a social media post.

Nepal, which marks a year this month since deadly mass protests at rampant corruption and a woeful economy overthrew the then-government, has limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale.

In a preliminary assessment, the United Nations estimated building damage alone at $158 million, warning that total losses — including damage to roads and bridges, agricultural land and humanitarian costs — would be far higher.

Kathmandu has warned reconstruction could cost billions of dollars.

Shah, a 36-year-old former rapper, called the disaster a national “thunderbolt” in an emotional speech to parliament today.

“My heart chills when I hear the cries of flood victims,” Shah said.

“But we have no time to rest simply because our bodies are tired. Even with broken hearts, there is no time to sit and mourn together.”

Mass burials 

In an illustration of the scale of destruction, Chinese state media said road access to hard-hit Gyirong Port in Tibet had finally been restored on Wednesday after “days of round-the-clock repair work”.

Nepal said 1,114 bodies had been recovered by Wednesday, while 3,916 people remained missing.

China’s state media reported 16 dead and 546 missing.

That takes the overall number of reported dead to 1,130, and 4,462 missing.

More than 800 foreigners from over 30 nations are among the missing: 583 in Nepal and 261 in China.

They include tourists who came to trek in the Himalayas, as well as Hindu pilgrims seeking spiritual peace at Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.

At least 17 bodies have also been pulled from rivers downstream in India.

In China, foreign journalists are restricted from reporting in Tibet, and Chinese authorities have a tight grip on information sources in the region.

Tibetan advocacy groups in exile have questioned China’s account of the disaster, but Beijing insists that the “release of information has been open, transparent and timely”. — AFP