Nepal Police counted 95 bodies by Wednesday evening in Kathmandu. Thirty-three came out of Chitwan, about 150 kilometres down the Trishuli from the Chinese border. One came out of Rasuwa, the district that actually touches China. Nepal's forecasters got no warning that the water was coming, because nobody in Beijing was ever obliged to send one.
Police recorded the rest of the dead in Dhading (18), Gorkha (16), Nuwakot (11), Nawalparasi East (11) and Tanahun (5). Nepalis died a long way inside their own country. The water started at the border and ran for hours down the Trishuli before it reached the towns where it killed people. Nobody rang ahead.
Binod Parajuli's Flood Forecasting Division received nothing from the Chinese side. Officials give the reason in one line: no formal notification mechanism exists between the two countries. Nobody has a number to call, and nobody has to answer it.
Shanti Mahat, who speaks for Nepal's national disaster authority, said the preliminary Chinese information reached Nepal through ICIMOD — the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a research institute headquartered in Kathmandu. Nepal has received no official confirmation from China.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal described the position his government is in. "Since there is no one at the Nepal-China border point and no information is available from the scientific community due to bad weather, we are seeking real-time information from different research centres as well as from the Chinese authorities." Khanal is asking research centres what happened to his own river.
