Experts fear that the glaciers that caused the catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China remain at risk of collapse, causing another surge of water, ice and debris. 

It comes as the death toll from the floods rose to over 1,000 on Tuesday as rescue teams scrambled to reach communities cut off by the August 26 disaster. 

China’s Ministry of Water Resources warned yesterday of a ‘major risk’ from the glaciers surrounding the Cuojian River in Nepal, where a glacier collapsed, sending large amounts of rock, ice and meltwater into valleys across Nepal and Tibet. 

Floodwaters swept away homes, buildings, roads, and bridges, carrying mud and rocks downstream and causing widespread devastation. 

The ministry said water levels at a barrier lake after flooding in Nepal had fallen significantly, but warned unstable glaciers downstream could trigger further flooding. 

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery captured on Monday morning showed the area of the water body at the impact crater on Nepal’s Cuojian River had shrunk to about 83,000 square metres down from 108,000 square metres on Sunday morning.

While water is currently draining through the channel, further landslides could block the river and create another barrier lake, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, China’s Meteorological Administration issued a warning for more rain in Gyirong county in Tibet over the next three days.

Nepal army soldiers work during a search and rescue operation outside a tunnel near the Hydropower Project sites, following deadly flash floods and mudslides, in Rasuwa district, Nepal, in this handout obtained by Reuters on September 1, 2026

Nepali soldier walks inside a tunnel amid rescue operations to free workers believed to be trapped at the scene of the Langtang hydropower project

It also urged rescuers to remain on high alert, as more rain could complicate rescue efforts and make roads slippery for heavy machinery carrying out the critical work.

The warnings come as authorities continue to search for thousands of people who remain unaccounted for. 

Rescue teams are also working to assist survivors in areas where roads and other transportation routes have been damaged or cut off.

For rescuers, the immediate priority remains finding at least 900 workers who are missing from 12 hydropower projects damaged by the flash floods, about 500 of whom are believed to be trapped inside tunnels.

Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal’s army spokesperson, said teams assisted by foreign experts were working at several hydropower projects to reach people trapped in blocked tunnels. 

Visuals released by the army showed rescue teams entering dark, debris-filled tunnels, wading through mud and water and climbing over rocks as they searched for signs of life.

At the Upper Trishuli 3A site, rescuers broke through into the upper part of a mud-swamped tunnel, pumping air inside, then using drilling and excavator machines to dig down.

‘When members of the team descended using ropes and called out to those inside, there was no response,’ Shah said, adding that the rescue operation was continuing.

Kulman Gsising, former head of many of the hydro projects who has just returned from the scene to help co-ordinate the rescue operation, told the Daily Mail:

‘It’s impossible to say how long the workers will be able to survive because we just don’t know the condition of the tunnels.

A hydroelectric power plant construction site covered with debris in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, 01 September 2026

Damaged houses stand precariously near the swollen, debris-choked banks of the Trishuli River

Drone view of people inspecting a damaged house after the deadly flash floods and mudslide

People salvage belongings from their home following flash floods at Devighat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district

‘From our estimates, there are 300 workers inside six to eight tunnels. If there’s enough oxygen and food, they could be OK for several weeks. But from what I’ve seen so far, that’s not the case.

‘There was one tunnel that was reached, and it was totally filled with water and mud, so we weren’t able to tell if there were any workers inside. At another, after creating an opening, there was no response when we called out.’

Mr Gsising, who previously served as Nepal’s Energy Minister, said: ‘The whole area has been destroyed and many villages and hydropower projects have been wiped off the face of the earth.’

‘We have to find our people as quickly as we can. This is a desperate race against time.’

The Nepal Electricity Authority said 11 hydropower stations and one solar power station, with a combined capacity of 431.1 megawatts – about 10 per cent of the country’s installed electricity generation capacity – had stopped operating.

Another 15 power projects under construction, with a planned capacity of 470 megawatts, were damaged.

There have been emotional scenes outside the Nepal Electricity Authority’s head office in Kathmandu, where relatives of workers feared trapped have been gathering to await news of them.

Sita Pandey, whose husband Jiblal was working in one of the tunnels, told local media: ‘I still have a 50 per cent hope that he is alive because there is an oxygen system inside.’

She revealed that she last spoke to him on Wednesday morning, hours before the flood hit.

Desperately hoping that he is found quickly, she added: ‘We can understand that the rescue operation is technically complex. But we cannot accept delays. Our people are inside there. For us, every second counts.’ 

Bimal Sharma, a helicopter pilot who has been flying rescue missions since the disaster began, said he was shocked to see the devastation in Timure, a border town close to Tibet that he has known for years.

‘It felt like I was flying over an entirely different landscape,’ he said.

Sharma said he has had little opportunity to speak with the people he rescued, but their expressions told him how deeply the disaster had affected them.

‘I can see the pain in their eyes. It’s heartbreaking,’ he said.

On the Chinese side, rescuers were working in areas affected by the mudslide, particularly in and around the Gyirong Port border crossing, which was destroyed.

Some rescuers, aided by search dogs, were looking for any sign of life in gaps among rocks and debris. 

Other teams were using heavy machinery to try to reopen a major highway leading to Gyirong Port, which would facilitate the delivery of equipment, personnel and supplies to the disaster zone, according to the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper.

Firefighters and sniffer dogs conduct a search for missing people along a road leading towards Gyirong Port

Relatives console Muna Khadka, centre, who lost her son Aayush Khada in flash floods

An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after flash floods

Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, have been buried in shallow graves as they began decomposing in the humid weather in the plains in Nepal. 

Aid needs are enormous. Entire communities have been swept away, leaving families homeless in heavy rain or sheltering in temporary facilities.

‘This is an unfolding disaster,’ UN Children’s Fund official Abiodun Banire said, adding that the needs of the tens of thousands impacted were vast.

Roads have been washed away, power plants destroyed and dozens of bridges smashed.

‘We are continuing to work for search, rescue and relief operations,’ Karki said on Monday, as communications slowly improved. Police initially had to use drones to carry messages into cut-off areas.

‘Rescue teams have now reached most areas, by road or by helicopters,’ he added.

With mortuaries overflowing with the dead, Nepal has begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after taking DNA samples so families can later retrieve them.

Kathmandu has appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed ‘more than a thousand’ freezer units to store bodies.

Nepali soldiers inside a tunnel amid rescue operations to free workers believed to be trapped at the scene of the Langtang hydropower project

Nepal Army personnel rescuing a man, following deadly flash floods and mudslides

Rescue workers taking part in a rescue operation near the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project

Distraught families, desperate for news of missing relatives, are watching images of bodies on screens at community centres in a bid to identify the dead.

Shobha Adhikary, in the southern Nepali city of Bharatpur, told a local coordinator she believed one image showed her childhood best friend.

‘It looks like him, for sure,’ she said, showing a photograph of a smiling, middle-aged man.

‘My husband and I are best friends with Rajkumar and his wife Geeta,’ she said. Geeta has also been missing since Wednesday.

Among Nepal’s list of the missing are 592 foreigners, including tourists who had come for trekking in its apparently serene mountains, and Hindu pilgrims seeking spiritual peace at Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.