One month on, Red Cross brings hope amidst the mud in Nepal
1 October 2026
Mud, quicksand and despair are all that’s left of many villages along the Trishuli River in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. These northern areas were the hardest hit in August’s flash flood that tore through the region leaving thousands of people dead and missing, and several more thousands homeless.
New Zealanders have watched the tragedy unfolding and have opened their hearts giving generously to our Nepal Emergency Flood Appeal. So far, our generous donors have donated more than $500,000 to the appeal.
These funds are being transferred to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as part of the global response to enable the Nepal Red Cross to carry on vital recovery work.
Pipe networks that distributed fresh water are gone. Nepal Red Cross has installed fresh water tanks for communities.
Nepal Red Cross Society, supported by IFRC, has been working tirelessly to airlift food to remote communities, install water tanks to supply safe drinking water and set up field clinics to treat as many patients as it can every day.
Volunteers are also operating a rope bridge in Bidur, Nuwakot’s main town to connect people with the public hospital that is stranded on the far side of Trishuli river. Volunteers pull people across by hand, so patients and families can still reach medical care on the other side.
Volunteers are running child-friendly spaces in the many evacuation centres to help children deal with the trauma of what they’ve seen and lived through.
Volunteers are also working to trace and support families who have been separated.
Working on many fronts with just one aim, Nepal Red Cross is finding ways to help people whose lives have been destroyed.
In Dhading, Nepal, ringed by mountains still streaked grey with mud, 14-year-old Shristi stands beside the few things she has left: a few pots, some food. That is all that remains of her home.
"I was at school when the water came and destroyed my house," she says. "When I returned, I had to walk through mud and quicksand."
Spaces where children can still be children: 14-year-old Shristi has a moment to forget the horror of knowing her home washed away.
In Devighat, Nuwakot, Bishneu Pane lost his home in the flood, and his 82-year-old mother is still missing.
"My mother was living here when the disaster struck. The house collapsed, and we're trying to find out whether her body is under the debris," he says. "There is not much debris left, so the flood may have swept her away."
Nepal Red Cross volunteers operate a rope bridge across the river, pulling people two at a time across from the hospital on one side to the community on the other.
In the near term, Nepal Red Cross is committed to ensuring essential relief supplies reach the communities still out of contact, mainly in Rasuwa, and scaling up shelter, water and sanitation, health and psychosocial support, and cash assistance.
It’s been four weeks but across Nuwakot and Rasuwa, families of the missing still gather where the search-and-rescue helicopters land, hoping for good news that fades more and more with each day that passes.
Your support continues to make a difference
Recent heavy monsoon rains and several landslides, and a fatal avalanche across Nepal keeps making the job of transporting essential relief supplies to affected communities even harder for Nepal Red Cross.
The generosity of New Zealand donors will continue to make a difference.
Consider donating today to help restore access to care, water, and support systems that people in Nepal need to rebuild their lives and help make sure they know they are not facing this crisis alone.