Nepal Flood Disaster Leaves Thousands Dead and Missing as Survivors Face Economic Ruin
9 sources across 6 countries
Who reported this
- Kyodo News
- The Japan Times
- The Guardian
- Reuters
- CNN
- Al-Monitor
- The Daily Star
- South China Morning Post
- Neue Zuercher Zeitung
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
A catastrophic flood disaster in Nepal has left more than 1,300 people dead and over 5,000 missing after a glacier collapsed at Langtang Lirung mountain on August 26. The collapse unleashed a wall of mud and water that devastated the Trishuli valley, destroying villages and submerging 12 hydropower projects. Government estimates suggest the reconstruction costs will reach 5 billion dollars, which represents roughly one tenth of Nepal's annual economic output. Many survivors are currently residing in government shelters, facing the loss of homes and livestock. Some survivors report that they are unable to rebuild because they are still paying off loans from homes built after the 2015 earthquake.
Rescue operations have focused heavily on hydropower workers. While hundreds were believed to be buried, two men, Kabir Maharjan and Sanjay Sah, were rescued after surviving nine days in an air filled chamber within a cable duct tunnel. Their survival has provided hope for the rescue of 121 workers still believed to be trapped underground. Reports indicate that an escape ladder existed that could have saved many more workers, but many did not know where to go during the evacuation.
Nepal's foreign minister has requested 20 million dollars in climate compensation from the UN, arguing that the disaster was a result of the climate crisis. He stated that the Himalayas are warming faster than the global average and called on the world's biggest polluting economies to accept shared responsibility. While some reports focus on the human interest of the tunnel rescue, others emphasize the systemic economic collapse and the need for international climate justice.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- These outlets framed the disaster as a consequence of the global climate crisis and emphasized the need for climate compensation from wealthy nations.
- Centre
- These outlets focused primarily on the factual details of the disaster and the specific human interest story of the tunnel survivors.
- Centre-right
- These outlets highlighted the long term economic devastation and the struggle of survivors to rebuild their lives from zero.
Sources
- Centre Al-Monitor: Exclusive-How two men survived nine days in a Nepal flood tunnel
- Centre-left CNN: See China-Nepal border crossing devastated by floods
- Centre Kyodo News: How two men survived nine days in a Nepal flood tunnel
- Centre-right Neue Zuercher Zeitung: "We are back at zero": Reconstruction after the flash flood in Nepal will cost billions
- Centre Reuters: EXCLUSIVE: How two men survived nine days in a Nepal flood tunnel - Reuters
- Centre-right South China Morning Post: Nepal flood survivors face economic ruin as migration beckons
- Centre The Daily Star: How two men survived nine days in a Nepal flood tunnel
- Centre-left The Guardian: Nepal says big polluters must ‘wake up’ as it calls for climate compensation over flood disaster
- Centre The Japan Times: How two men survived nine days in a Nepal flood tunnel
- Centre The Japan Times: Nepali rescuers focus on 900 hydropower workers in wake of catastrophic floods
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.