Nepal is observing a national day of mourning to honor more than 1,300 individuals who died in floods that occurred last month. On Monday, government offices in Nepal and diplomatic missions abroad are flying the national flag at half-mast, marking the 13th day since the floods, according to a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In Hindu tradition, this day signifies the end of the mourning period, during which close family members remain at home while relatives visit to pay their respects. Rituals are performed to pray for the deceased on this final day.
The government has not organized any public events for the day of mourning, as search teams continue to look for survivors and resources are limited. Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) stated, "There are no government programmes organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas," as reported by Reuters.
The floods were triggered by a glacier breaking off, which caused a massive wall of mud and rock to collapse into a river on the Himalayan border between Nepal and China's Tibet region on August 26. The disaster resulted in at least 1,380 fatalities and left over 5,500 individuals missing.
In recent days, search teams have rescued four individuals, including a Chinese national who was retrieved from a tunnel at a hydropower site on Saturday. Two hydropower workers were rescued from another tunnel on Friday, and a Nepali woman was pulled from her buried house on Saturday.
President Ram Chandra Paudel is visiting flood-affected areas on Monday to assess the damage caused by the disaster, according to his aide.
In Kathmandu, family members gathered near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries to urge authorities to expedite the search for hundreds of workers involved in hydropower projects who were either swept away by the Bhotekoshi River or buried under debris.
Sumana Shrestha, holding a poster of her husband who has been missing since the flood, expressed concern about the lack of rescue efforts at the Trishuli hydropower plant site. "We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already," she stated. "The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle."
Another protester, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, displayed a photograph of his brother, an engineer who also worked at the same site. He criticized the authorities for their slow response, noting that only a small excavator was sent by helicopter several days after the disaster. He suggested that larger helicopters should have been deployed to transport more equipment.
Rescue operations have concentrated on 12 hydropower projects, with approximately 900 workers reported missing and around 500 believed to be trapped in various tunnels. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States are actively searching through debris, damaged structures, and tunnels at these sites.