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Nepal floods aftermath - UN OCHA, IFRC, UN Women, WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
Triggered by a glacier collapse and landslide on Nepal’s border with China on Wednesday, the disaster has killed 987 people in Nepal so far, according to the latest figures shared by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke.
As of today, “search and rescue is still ongoing, and the monsoon hasn't stopped,” warned Matt Baden, Operations Manager for the Nepal crisis response at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), based in Kathmandu.
Blocked waterways remain at risk of further flooding and “the threat of landslides is real and immediate,” he stressed.
Mr. Baden spoke of “vehicles, roads, entire houses buried under meters of mud” in the hardest-hit districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading.
“Walk through it and you find yourself standing on what used to be the second floor of a house... The ground floor is not gone, it's just underneath you, somewhere in the mud.”
People are coming back to look for their homes and what's left of them, the IFRC official said.
“We met a group digging through the mud for their mother, 82 years old, home alone when the water came… She had nowhere to go.”
Mr. Baden said that whole communities have been cut off and access in the affected areas remains extremely difficult: “a trip that used to take 10 minutes now takes nine hours.”
Christine Arab, the Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at UN Women said that many of those whom humanitarians would normally support - pregnant women, lactating women, people with disabilities - are “gone, washed away, because they could not run to higher ground,” highlighting the particular impact of the disaster on the most vulnerable.
“Women survivors are running out of food, safe water is increasingly inaccessible, [and] protection risks are growing,” she said.
“For women and girls in Rasuwa District, collecting water already meant traveling long distance and spending hours each day,” Ms. Arab explained. “Now, these women are telling us that access to safe water has been cut off altogether following the destruction of the water systems, roads, and bridges.”
One in three households in the affected areas is headed by women as men tend to migrate in search of economic opportunities.
Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that while immediate efforts remain focused on life-saving interventions, “preventing secondary public health impacts is equally important.”
“Flooding, displacement, overcrowding and stagnant water can increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” he warned. “WHO is supporting surveillance in affected and downstream areas to monitor the potential increase… of dengue, scrub typhus and other communicable diseases.”
Six health facilities have suffered damage or destruction while two others cannot be reached, Mr. Lindmeier said – which means that “people on the ground don't have a health facility available at the time of their biggest needs.”
-ENDS -
STORY Nepal floods aftermath - UN OCHA, IFRC, UN Women, WHO
TRT: 2:40’’
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: UNICEF BROLL - CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and 28 AUGUST 2026, NUWAKOT DISTRICT, BAGMATI PROVINCE, NEPAL
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “The latest number on the casualties on the Nepalese side now stands at 987. So very close to a grim marker of 1,000 casualties, dead.”
4. Medium reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalist in the Press room.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matt Baden, Operations Manager for the Nepal crisis response, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC): “Search and rescue is still ongoing, and the monsoon hasn't stopped. Blocked waterways remain at risk to further flooding, and threat of landslides is real and immediate.”
6. Medium reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matt Baden, Operations Manager for the Nepal crisis response, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC): “A trip that used to take 10 minutes now takes nine hours. People are coming back to look for their homes and what's left of them. We met a group digging through the mud for their mother, 82 years old, home alone when the water came. She had nowhere to go.”
8. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christine Arab, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, UN Women: “In so many of the communities we have been to, pregnant women, lactating women, people with disabilities, the people we would normally support, they're gone, washed away, because they could not run to higher ground.”
10. Wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christine Arab, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, UN Women: “For women and girls in Rasuwa District, for example, collecting water already meant traveling long distance and spending hours each day to secure safe water for their families. Now, these women are telling us that access to safe water has been cut off altogether following the destruction of the water systems, roads, and bridges.”
12. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, World Health Organization (WHO): “While immediate efforts remain focused on life-saving interventions still, and at this point, preventing secondary public health impacts is equally important. Flooding, displacement, overcrowding, and stagnant water can increase the risk of disease outbreaks. WHO is supporting surveillance in affected and downstream areas to monitor the potential increase in these areas of potentially dengue, scrub typhus and other communicable diseases.”
14. Various shots: Journalists in the Press room.
15. UNICEF BROLL: 28 AUGUST 2026, NUWAKOT DISTRICT, BAGMATI PROVINCE, NEPAL - CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN - Various shots: floodwater rushing, damaged buildings; aerial shot of destruction.
Link to UN Women b-roll - PLEASE CREDIT UN WOMEN - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oyJlfYyrkWmxDkyEtYk1fL5Z-rQq5DZ2 and shotlist: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/13AF_L1V_ssuARZbsvq8tO_xrzPYBu11_t9JuTUhuq_8/mobilebasic
Link to IFRC b-roll: https://shared.ifrc.org/collections/~faf36eb3dc and photos: https://shared.ifrc.org/collections/~f76a93a3c9
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“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
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