Growing UN fund support as Nepal urges emergency aid after deadly floods
Following floods that killed over 1,350 people, Nepal is pressing the UN Loss and Damage Fund for an emergency meeting, backed by fourteen board members.
The catastrophic Bhotekoshi river flood on August 26 caused over 1,350 deaths, nearly 5,000 missing persons and damage estimated at around Rs400 billion, prompting Nepal to seek rapid assistance from the UN-backed Loss and Damage Fund (FRLD). The ministries of Agriculture, Forests and Environment and Foreign Affairs have been lobbying board members, and fourteen representatives from least-developed, African and Asia-Pacific nations have written to the fund’s co-chairs requesting an emergency board meeting before the scheduled December session.
Maheshwar Dhakal, Nepal’s alternate board member and head of the Climate Change Division, has held virtual talks with fund members, while Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Agriculture Minister Geeta Chaudhary signed the formal appeal. Despite the appeal being sent on August 31, Nepal has not yet received a decision, though international solidarity is growing. The government plans to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly and recent LDC ministerial meetings, emphasizing climate justice for a country that contributes little to global emissions but suffers severe climate-related disasters.
How this story developed
- Aug 28 Nepalese army pulls survivors from flooded hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa
- Sep 1 Death toll rose to at least 950 and missing counts climbed to over 4,400, including about 80 Americans and up to 43 Australians.
- Sep 1 An Australian survivor was located, reducing the number of missing Australians to 42.
- Sep 3 Families held symbolic funerals for missing victims.
- Sep 3 The storm made landfall on Fujian’s coast after earlier strikes on Zhejiang, leading to the suspension of dozens of ferry services and the closure of schools in Fuzhou and Quanzhou. Tourist sites such as theme parks in Fuzhou were also temporarily closed. The provincial emergency management authority warned of heavy rain, flash floods and landslides, while nearly a quarter-million residents in high-risk zones had been evacuated the previous week.
- Sep 3 Death toll rose above 1,270 and bodies recovered reached 1,252.
- Sep 5 A Canadian citizen missing after the floods was located safe.
- Sep 5 After more than a week of searching, a 64-year-old woman was rescued from a mud-filled house and a Chinese worker was saved from a deep tunnel, rekindling optimism amid Nepal's deadliest floods in a decade.
- Sep 5 Authorities suspended 24 passenger ferry routes and closed Fuzhou theme parks.
- Sep 6 Flash floods ripped a three‑storey building in Xianyou County and drones delivered supplies to a flooded school in Wenzhou.
- Sep 6 Officials are pursuing higher‑ground reconstruction of the school with Indian aid.
- Sep 7 Chinese worker Lu Haitao was rescued from a 225‑metre hydropower tunnel and air‑lifted to a hospital.
- Sep 7 The United Nations launched a $50 million appeal to aid flood‑affected residents.
- Sep 9 Two hydropower workers were rescued after being trapped for nine days.
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