Kathmandu, Sept. 1 -- Mithu Khadka has spent days calling her husband's phone, hoping that this time he might answer. Instead, there has been only silence. The last time she spoke to Kamal Khadka, known as Nanu, was in a video call at around 8:30 am on Wednesday. Two hours later, the Bhotekoshi flood tore through hydropower sites in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, leaving hundreds of workers missing.

Khadka, who had worked for two years at the under-construction 216MW Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, was among them. "Looking at the mobile screen all the time has hurt my eyes," said Mithu, from Gaurishankar Municipality-2 in Dolakha. "His name is neither on the list of the missing nor among those who have been found. It feels as though my whole w...