Nepal flood toll hits 27, but the Rs 74 billion power damage figure is from August

Twenty seven people have died and 1,065 families have been hit by floods, landslides, inundation, windstorms and lightning since heavy rain began on Thursday, September 24, the government told Nepal Press. Seven people are injured and four remain missing. The toll comes from 513 separate monsoon incidents recorded across the country in four days.

The Nepal Electricity Authority, or NEA, the state utility that runs Nepal's grid, said the August 26 Bhote Koshi flood cut 430 megawatts of hydropower generation, Republica reported. NEA has not said how much generation the rain since September 24 has cut. To keep supply steady through the dry winter months, the NEA now plans to import up to 1,154 megawatts of electricity from India between January and May, its managing director Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha told OnlineKhabar English. The plan means households again depend on Indian electricity when Nepali rivers run lowest.

Damage kept surfacing through the weekend. In Baglung, floodwater tore through the main pipeline near Hanumanmaowa in Baglung Municipality-3, cutting water to roughly 4,500 users in the bazaar since Sunday, September 27, Ratopati reported. In Mustang, floods and river cutting damaged 46 sections of the Beni-Jomsom-Korla road, a national pride project linking the region to the Korala trade point on the Tibet border. Project chief Tejaswi Sharma told a district disaster meeting on Monday, September 28, that full reopening will take more than a week, Nepal Press reported. In Myagdi, the same four days of rain left about 200 families displaced and cut roads, phone lines and power to rural areas, delaying an exact damage count, the district administration office told OnlineKhabar.

What the Rs 74 billion figure covers

The Rs 74 billion power damage figure is not the cost of this week's rain. Republica's own report on the estimate opens by dating it to "floods triggered by the Bhote Koshi River on August 26", a separate flood that hit a full month before the September 24 rains this story covers. Republica's report ties the Rs 74 billion damage to power infrastructure to that August 26 flood on the Bhote Koshi River. The NEA has not published an updated damage estimate covering the newer flooding, and neither the authority nor the government said today what additional cost that flooding has added.

A second mismatch runs through today's reporting. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, or NDRRMA, the federal body that coordinates disaster response, counted 21 deaths in 272 incidents in the 24 hours before Republica's report on Monday, September 28, Republica reported. That is a rolling one day count. Nepal Press's 27 dead figure covers four days, since September 24. The two numbers are not additive, but neither agency said how many of the 21 daily deaths already sit inside the 27 four day total.

Relief is also uneven so far. Gandaki province, which includes Baglung and Myagdi, has approved Rs 100,000, about USD 715, for each family of someone killed in the floods, plus Rs 25,000 for funeral costs, Ratopati reported. Neighbouring Lumbini province recorded 78 disaster incidents, six deaths and 1,280 displaced people over the same four days, Nepal Press reported. No matching relief announcement for Lumbini families had been reported as of today.

What we still do not know

Whether the NEA will issue a combined damage estimate that includes the September flooding, not just the August 26 Bhote Koshi flood, a question for the NEA and the Ministry of Energy.

Whether Baglung and Myagdi families who lost someone have actually received Gandaki's promised Rs 100,000, a question for the province's Ministry of Internal Affairs and the two district administration offices.

Whether Lumbini and other affected provinces will announce relief to match Gandaki's, a question for their provincial governments.

Whether the Beni-Jomsom-Korla road reopens on schedule within the week the project chief estimated, a question for the Department of Roads.