'Second life': Nepal tunnel survivor recalls ordeal
Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah survived for 10 days trapped in a flooded tunnel following a catastrophic glacial collapse. His rescue serves as a rare positive outcome from a disaster that has claimed over 1,400 lives.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the increasing vulnerability of Himalayan infrastructure to climate-driven glacial instability.
For 10 days, Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah survived in darkness inside a flooded tunnel, drinking muddy water and losing all sense of time as he desperately prayed for rescue.
When a disaster response team finally pulled him to safety on September 4, Mr. Sah's first question showed how deeply the ordeal had disoriented him.
"When I was rescued I first asked, how many days has it been?" Mr. Sah, 30, told AFP in an interview, while on his way back home in Saptari district Sunday (September 13, 2026).
"He said that it has been 10 days. I thought it had been just a few days."
Mr. Sah was among hundreds of workers at a series of hydropower projects hit by the catastrophic August 26 flood, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border.
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