Firms Stay Behind in Nepal One Month After Devastating Floods Despite Ended Government Search

Tomorrow marks one month since nine South Korean employees were missing following massive floods at a hydropower plant construction site in Nepal.

Although the first and second rounds of government-led search operations have concluded, the companies they belong to are continuing their own search efforts on the ground without giving up until the end.

According to the local corporate response team, Korea South-East Power Co. (KOEN) plans to continue its search operations without taking a break during the Chuseok holiday to locate the three missing employees.

Immediately following the accident, KOEN established an emergency response headquarters centered around Acting President Cho Young-hyuk and entered a 24-hour response system.

It dispatched personnel from its Kathmandu corporation to the accident site and sent a six-member emergency response team to the local area, including Yoon Jang-hyun, head of the New Growth Business Division.

Acting President Cho arrived locally on August 30, held meetings with high-ranking local government officials including the vice ministers of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Energy of Nepal to request search support, and returned to South Korea on September 4.

KOEN is focusing on ground searches, keeping in mind the possibility that the missing employees may have evacuated to mountainous areas.

On September 23, a total of 84 people consisting of Sherpas and others were divided into eight teams to conduct ground searches.

Along with this, a total 11-team system including two drone teams (five drones) and one rescue dog team (two rescue dogs) thoroughly combed the accident site area, including the base camp, the vicinity of the powerhouse, downstream riverbanks, and mountain slopes.

The cumulative number of people deployed to the search work up to September 23 reached 1,881 in total, including 1,774 ground search team members and 107 drone team members.

Although no traces of the missing persons have been found yet, local withdrawal or scale reduction is not being considered.

Currently, families of the three missing KOEN employees are staying in local Nepal and anxiously watching the situation.

KOEN is sharing search progress with the families in real time, but they spent the holiday in a foreign country without being able to confirm whether their loved ones are alive or dead as it approaches a month since the accident occurred.

Earlier on September 9, three family members of the missing KOEN employees held a press conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, urging the government to halt unilateral search terminations and early withdrawals.

Doosan Enerbility, where six employees are missing, has also established an emergency response headquarters with management directly taking charge, devoting utmost efforts to searching for the missing persons and responding to the situation.

Jung Yeon-in, Vice Chairman and CEO of Doosan Enerbility, headed to Nepal the day after the accident to lead the local response team before returning on September 6. Following Lee Dong-soo, Head of the EHS Division (Vice President) who served as the head of the emergency response headquarters, Lee Hyun-ho, Head of the Plant EPC BG (Vice President), is currently overseeing the local response.

At the Doosan Group level, Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won and Vice Chairman Park Ji-won (Chairman and CEO of Doosan Enerbility) headed to Nepal on August 29 to receive reports on the local situation and support local search and rescue activities.

Doosan Enerbility's local response team currently consists of about 40 members, and the cumulative personnel deployed to local missing persons searches and other tasks up to September 23 includes about 400 South Koreans and 260 locally hired personnel.

Although they initially faced difficulties in helicopter search operations due to delayed flight permissions from Nepali authorities, they subsequently operated helicopters a total of 15 times from August 31 to September 13, conducting intensive searches centered around the main camp (accommodation and office buildings) of the hydropower plant and downstream areas.

Following the initial deployment of one drone on August 31, a cumulative total of about 70 drones have been deployed to date, filming around the accident area 4 to 6 times per drone, with video analysis being conducted through a domestic outsourced company.

From September 1 to 13, an identification team was formed to carry out identification work on unidentified bodies found downstream of the river.

The cumulative deployed personnel alone is 76 people.

A ground search party is also in operation.

From August 28 to 31, a first ground search party of 15 people was formed and urgently deployed to the accident location, and afterwards, divided into two teams, searching areas around residential areas and mountain evacuation routes near the weir dam section, as well as residential areas and mountain evacuation routes near the river downstream of the camp.

The cumulative deployed personnel as of September 23 is about 300 people.

In addition, two small excavators have been deployed to the main camp area to work on drainage ditches and other tasks, and three large excavators are also scheduled to be deployed additionally.

Doosan Enerbility has been steadily communicating with the families of the missing persons throughout this process to share the local situation.

It is reported that last weekend, four family members of missing persons who visited Nepal were put on a helicopter so they could directly inspect the local situation.

Ten South Koreans belonging to Doosan Enerbility who were isolated and rescued at the time of the massive floods have returned home safely.

Earlier on August 26, massive floods occurred in the Himalayan mountainous region on the Nepal-China border, sweeping through the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant construction site in the Rasuwa district of Bagmati Province, central-northern Nepal.

Due to this accident, nine South Korean workers, including six Doosan Enerbility employees and three KOEN employees, went missing at the site.

The hydropower plant project was led by KOEN, with Doosan Enerbility taking charge of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC).

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.