Nepal to back five flood children as 933 hydropower missing from August go unmentioned

Nepal's government will pay for school, upbringing and other basic needs for five children whose fathers went missing in the Bhotekoshi flood, until each turns 18, Republica reported on Friday, October 2. Republica described them as orphaned. The same day, a Malaysian national who vanished in the same flood walked back into his family's life, safe, after 37 days missing, according to Daily Excelsior and Malaysia's The Sun.

For families still waiting on word of a missing relative, these are the two outcomes Friday's coverage reported. One shows the state stepping in to support five children. The other shows a foreign government pushing hard for its own citizens. Neither story mentions the largest group NDRRMA broke out in its August 31 missing count. Nepal's own disaster authority counted 933 people tied to hydropower projects as missing on August 31.

Republica named the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens and its Long-Term Care Plan for Children Affected by Floods Who Require Special Protection as the program covering the five children, but did not name the children themselves or say how the support will be funded. The five children in Republica's report belong to one family, cited as an example case under the ministry's Long-Term Care Plan, not a stated national total.

In Malaysia, the rescued citizen is one of 55 who went missing after the flood struck on August 26, Daily Excelsior and The Sun reported. He returned home safe, a Malaysian government spokesperson confirmed, Malay Mail reported. Malay Mail reported 54 Malaysians still missing as of October 2. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has secured a fast track process to search for them, Malay Mail reported, after a call with Nepali officials.

In Tikapur, in western Nepal, a family stopped waiting. Nepal Press reported the cremation of Bir Bahadur Chaudhary, 35, of Samitipur in Tikapur Municipality-1, whose body was never recovered despite a long search after the flood. The family performed the rites using kush, a ritual grass Hindu families use when a body cannot be found, Nepal Press reported.

What the coverage missed

None of Friday's reports mention the 933 people tied to hydropower projects whom Nepal's disaster authority, NDRRMA, counted as missing on August 31, alongside 592 foreign nationals and 127 Nepalis who had been accompanying foreign tourists, Kathmandu Post reported. Nepal Wire found no later NDRRMA breakdown of that figure in the coverage it reviewed. Families of hydropower workers trapped in flooded tunnels were demanding answers, and opposition lawmakers accused the government of hesitating to accept foreign rescue help, Nepal News reported on September 1.

The official toll has moved, and none of the reports reviewed explain the gap. NDRRMA counted 903 dead and 4,247 missing on August 31, Kathmandu Post reported. Four days later, Nepal Police put the toll at 1,290 dead and 4,798 missing, The Himalayan Times reported, a missing count that rose rather than fell as search teams kept working. By October 2, Malaysian outlet FMT reported the flood had killed more than 1,450 people, without naming which Nepali agency supplied that number.

Of the 592 foreign nationals NDRRMA counted missing in August, only the 55 Malaysians drew sustained coverage and a prime minister's direct push in the reports Nepal Wire reviewed.

What we still do not know

Whether the ministry has released a nationwide count of flood orphaned children is a separate question for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.

Whether any of the 933 hydropower linked missing have been found, and whether the government brought in the foreign rescue expertise opposition lawmakers wanted, is a question for NDRRMA and the Ministry of Energy.

What Nepal's current, dated death toll and missing count actually are, five weeks on, is a question for NDRRMA or Nepal Police headquarters.