Devastating floods in Nepal have left a 20-member family in Trishuli confined to a single room, cut off from all outside assistance. With no basic facilities and several families struggling to find adequate shelter, the flood emergency has given way to a harder struggle — finding food, bedding and other essentials while waiting for a way to reconnect with the outside world.
A week after the disaster, Indian volunteers trying to reach such families are travelling for up to 10 hours through difficult mountain terrain, navigating damaged roads and bridges, while some affected areas in Rasuwa have no road access at all.
For volunteers, the focus has now shifted from the more accessible flood-hit areas to these isolated communities, where the scale of need is often greatest but reaching help is proving the hardest. “Almost a week after the floods, some of the more accessible areas are slowly seeing relief reach them, but our biggest concern now is reaching the families who have been most severely affected and remain isolated,” Manohar Naidu, a Khalsa Aid volunteer, told The Hindu from Nepal.
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In Trishuli, Tupche and other remote affected communities, volunteers have found families who have lost homes, livestock, household belongings and their sources of income. Some, they said, have essentially lost everything.
The volunteers described mass burials being carried out as mortuaries run out of space, with forest lands being cleared to accommodate the bodies as the death toll rises and many remain unidentified.
Nepal police personnel prepare the bodies of flash flood victims for a mass burial in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
AP
“Our immediate support is focused on essential relief such as food, clothing, bedding and basic household requirements. At the same time, we are assessing and documenting what each community will need for longer-term recovery,” Mr. Naidu said.
From Kathmandu, reaching some of these communities can take nine to 10 hours by road through difficult mountain terrain, volunteers shared. Roads and bridges damaged by the floods have made the journey even harder, while vehicles travelling into the affected areas are suffering damage.
The volunteers are travelling on trucks to deliver supplies, while demand for 4×4 vehicles has surged. Arranging suitable vehicles is becoming a challenge, with suppliers also raising prices amid the high demand, the volunteers said.
In Rasuwa, the problem is more acute. Some of the affected areas currently have no road connectivity at all, leaving helicopters as the only practical means of reaching them in many cases. But a single helicopter trip can cost around $2,000, making it an expensive proposition for humanitarian organisations trying to move relief into isolated communities.
“So the challenge is not simply having relief material available. The biggest challenge is getting that aid to the families who need it most,” Mr. Naidu said.
The shortage is not limited to transport. Khalsa Aid is procuring supplies locally, but demand has outstripped the available supply of essentials such as mattresses, solar lights and other household items.
The shift in focus has come as the teams have travelled deeper into the affected areas and seen how sharply conditions differ away from the main roads. “People need much more than food. They are asking how they are going to rebuild their lives,” Mr. Naidu said.
A resident stands on the balcony of a damaged building during heavy rainfall along the Trishuli River, at Devighat, in Nuwakot district, Nepal, on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
For many families, that rebuilding will begin with the most basic necessities — shelter, clean water and sanitation, household items and getting children back into education.
Further ahead lies the more difficult task of restoring livelihoods, while damaged homes, roads, bridges and other community infrastructure will also need to be rebuilt.
Khalsa Aid had earlier proposed adopting some of the inaccessible villages and supporting them through the recovery process.
“The proposal is still being assessed and teams are looking at the extent of damage, the number of families affected, loss of livelihoods and infrastructure requirements before committing resources. The idea is to concentrate resources on severely affected communities where sustained intervention could make a meaningful difference rather than spread assistance thinly across a much larger area,” a volunteer said.
The organisation is also considering temporary holding centres where affected families could be provided mattresses, portable washroom facilities and arrangements for cooking, particularly where several families are currently living together without basic amenities.
For the volunteers from India, the work has meant moving between logistics, assessments, packing and distribution while working directly with communities.
Many of the Indian volunteers have previous experience in disaster-response operations in India, including during the recent Assam floods. But Nepal has presented its own challenges — difficult mountain terrain, long journeys, limited electricity and internet connectivity and difficult transportation. “What stands out is their willingness to travel into difficult and remote locations despite the challenging terrain and conditions,” Mr. Naidu said.
The organisation has also sought official permission to help clear debris in some local areas to restore connectivity and make it easier to reach affected families, the volunteers said.
Published – September 04, 2026 06:06 pm IST
