A week after the devastating flood in Nepal and China, rescue teams continue to search for survivors. People have become numbers under which they are searched - BHF 23, BHF 216, BHF 254. Stoic corpses are being buried in the mud and silt, without it being clear who these people were, says a report by ARD. Many of them were dragged by the water element hundreds of kilometers.
Over 1,000 dead
A minute of silence was held in the flood-hit city of Girong in Chinese-controlled Tibet to honor the victims of the disaster. As rescue operations continue, the scale of the disaster is becoming clearer - and how differently the two countries are handling it.
In the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, authorities have reported 1,058 deaths and nearly 4,600 missing so far. According to authorities in Chinese Tibet, only 16 people have died, and 546 people are being sought, ARD writes.
Reports of 300 destroyed houses in Tibet
In the affected Trishuli River valley in Nepal alone, according to the EU satellite service “Copernicus“, at least 2,500 buildings have been destroyed. It is more difficult to determine the scale of the destruction on the Tibetan side. The British newspaper “Guardian“ reported, citing the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), about 300 destroyed houses in four villages. The figures could not be independently verified.
Chinese state media had earlier reported 27 buildings and structures destroyed. However, this figure only applied to the central area of the Girong border crossing, which covers an area of about 0.7 square kilometers, the German publication said.
Criticism over controlled information
Independent information from the affected southwestern Tibet is very difficult to obtain. While international media outlets report from Nepal, reports from the Chinese side are almost exclusively from state media. For years, foreign journalists have needed special permission to travel to the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Correspondents report a tightly controlled information environment. Videos of the flood, which initially circulated on Chinese social media, have been largely deleted in China. On Monday, “Human Rights Watch“ said there were reports that journalists were denied access to the disaster area and interviews with affected families. Beijing denies the accusations.
Controversy over Chinese dam projects
The disaster has also drawn attention to China's infrastructure projects on the Tibetan plateau. In a 2024 report, the ICT organization examined a total of 193 hydroelectric power plants built or planned since 2000 in Tibetan areas. The organization classifies almost 80 percent of them as large or megaprojects - and warns of risks of earthquakes, landslides and tidal flooding.
“The disaster in the Himalayas is a wake-up call,” said Kai Müller, executive director of ICT Germany, in response to a query. He is adamant that the giant infrastructure projects in the region must be stopped, for which international pressure is needed.
As a human rights organization, ICT is not an independent scientific institution, and the connection between Chinese dam projects and the current flood has not been proven. However, the disaster raises the question of how resilient China's large infrastructure projects are to such extreme events, points out ARD.
A better early warning system is needed
Scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Potsdam are calling for better monitoring and early warning. Seismic early warning systems could quickly detect flooding and provide people downstream with additional time to evacuate. However, this also requires cross-border cooperation.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in the areas affected by the disaster is rapidly deteriorating. The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of the danger of epidemics. The large number of displaced people in a limited space, floods and stagnant water increase the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, a spokesperson for the organization emphasized.
Lena Bodewein ARD | Antje Bonhage ARD