Nepal's dual response to deadly floods
Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah has thanked India, China and the US for their assistance after devastating flash floods hit the country on August 26, saying the support has played an important role in ongoing rescue and relief operations. Speaking about the disaster, Shah said, "So far, 11,993 people have been rescued. We have not been able to establish contact with at least 3,916 people. The next day, a group of ministers travelled to the affected areas. In these difficult times, we got support from various countries, including India, China, the US, and others. We got support from various banks."
Addressing Parliament, Shah specifically thanked India and China for quickly sending emergency assistance, technical teams and relief supplies.
The floods, triggered by a massive collapse of ice and rock from the Himalayan region, unleashed a torrent of water and debris through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river systems, destroying homes, roads, bridges and infrastructure across large parts of Nepal and the Tibet region of China. Roads, bridges, settlements and hydropower infrastructure were among those damaged.
Rescue operations are continuing in the worst-affected areas. At least 1,114 people have been confirmed killed and nearly 4,000 are missing in Nepal, according to one count, while another report puts the death toll at more than 1,100 with thousands still missing. Chinese state media reported 21 confirmed dead and 541 missing in Tibet.
International assistance
India has been among the countries providing both relief supplies and specialised assistance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier said he spoke to his Nepalese counterpart following the deadly flash flood and assured him of "all possible humanitarian assistance". India offered specialised search and rescue assistance following the disaster, and Indian teams have been involved in operations around hydropower tunnels and forensic work related to the large number of casualties and missing people. New Delhi has now delivered a fifth tranche of relief material to flood-hit Nepal, with the Indian Air Force conducting multiple sorties to transport emergency supplies.
China has also continued rescue and recovery operations on its side of the border. Beijing has reopened the damaged G216 highway leading to the Gyirong border crossing, enabling heavy machinery, search teams and specialist equipment to access areas that were earlier reachable only through difficult mountain routes.
Climate compensation demand
Shah's expression of gratitude comes after Nepal's Foreign Affairs Minister Shisir Khanal called for a move away from conventional humanitarian aid towards "climate compensation" from major emitters, including India, China and the United States. Khanal said the scale of the disaster had forced the country to rethink how it seeks international assistance.
"This was not a standard flood. With wave heights reaching 20 to 30 metres and speeds clocked at 180 kilometres per hour, this was a disaster of tornado-like velocity — what many are rightly calling a 'Himalayan Tsunami'. It is a scale of disaster that is entirely outside the living memory of Nepal," Khanal told the Kathmandu Post.
He said the destruction had affected homes, schools and major hydropower projects. "The damage is immense… We are looking at tens of thousands of damaged private homes, alongside heavily hit schools and multi-billion-rupee hydropower projects," Khanal said.
According to Khanal, Nepal wants to move away from treating post-disaster assistance simply as humanitarian aid and instead frame the issue around "justice and compensation". "Nepal's greenhouse gas emissions are virtually negligible. Yet, we are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create," he said, naming China, the United States and India as major emitters with historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal.
Prime Minister Shah has also linked the country's growing disaster risks to climate change.
Scientific debate and infrastructure context
Scientists have cautioned that it is too early to establish a definitive link between climate change and the August 26 disaster. However, Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk resilience expert at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, said climate change has been playing a large role in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Y Nithiyanandam, professor at The Takshashila Institution, said the Himalayas are a naturally fragile mountain system and climate change may be increasing underlying vulnerability.
The disaster has also drawn attention to large infrastructure projects in the region. China has constructed major hydropower projects in Tibet, including the Zangmu, Jiexu and Jiacha dams, and began work on a project on the Yarlung Zangbo near the Great Bend. India is pursuing the proposed 11,000 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh, alongside roads, tunnels and other infrastructure. No direct link between these projects and the August 26 floods has been established.
Economic impact and recovery
Nepal's Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters that the $5 billion recovery estimate could be only an initial figure. Nepali billionaire Binod Chaudhary warned that the eventual cost could reach that level, noting the time and difficult geography. The financial burden comes as Nepal deals with long-term costs of the 2015 earthquake. Tourism is expected to face disruption following the disaster.
The call for "climate compensation" has widened the disaster response into a demand for financial responsibility from major greenhouse gas emitters, even as Kathmandu acknowledges the assistance already provided by its neighbours.