KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal announced its intention to cease search and rescue operations for victims of the Aug. 26 flood that killed at least 1,455 people with thousands more still missing.
Family members of 5,285 people who remain unaccounted for, including hundreds of foreign nationals, expressed mixed reactions, with some relieved and others unhappy with the decision by Nepal's government announced late Monday.
The office of Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the government will concentrate on rehabilitation and reconstruction including restoring roads and bridges cut off by floods, particularly in remote areas where damaged infrastructure has made aid deliveries difficult.
The government estimates reconstruction and recovery will cost $4.77 billion. Nearly 33,000 people have been affected and about 7,500 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Hopes for finding survivors were revived after two Nepalese workers were rescued from an underground tunnel at the Trishuli hydropower project on Sept. 4, and again two days later when rescuers found a Chinese man at the same location.
The families of other flood victims have held protests and vigils in Nepal to call for the search efforts to be improved.
Usha Khatri opposed the government's decision to end rescue operations. She has spent days searching for her husband in many of the towns where the river flows and bodies have been recovered.
“I am so angry at the government for giving up on search and rescue with thousands of people still missing. I just don’t understand how they can do that when we still have hope left that our loved one can still be found,” Khatri said Wednesday.
During her ongoing search she has checked photos of bodies that were recovered but buried for preservation until identification is made.
“Either they have to give up the body or show some solid proof that my husband is gone and then only they can declare him dead,” Khatri said.
Other family members welcomed the decision and said they are seeking government-issued death certificates.
“After so many days and weeks there is little or no hope of finding anyone alive. We are sure that none of our family members survived and we are just looking for a closure,” said Nirajan Poudel, who lost five family members in the flood.
Several people whose relatives remain missing have performed symbolic funerals. Cremation is an important final rite in the Hindu tradition and performing the ceremony even without a body provides a sense of spiritual release for some families.
Poudel said the government has so far refused to issue death certificates, saying laws need to be amended first. Death certificates are necessary in Nepal for families to receive compensation, insurance and inherit properties.
Nepal's government did not immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for more information about the death certificates.
Legal experts said the key issue was determining the number of people who were swept away by the flood.
“There is more to do with practical complications than legal provisions,” supreme court lawyer Hardik Subedi said. “The process has not been initiated that facilitates the death certificate.”