Nepal-China Border Floods Disrupt Trade Route And Destroy Key Crossing

According to the BBC, floods on 26 August swept away the Friendship Bridge at Rasuwagadhi in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, along with immigration and customs facilities, vehicles and nearby buildings on the Nepal-China border. The disaster also devastated Gyirong on the Chinese side, where CCTV footage showed water, mud, boulders, ice and rock surging down the valley. The crossing is a major trade route between Nepal and China and handles about a third of Nepal’s $2.95bn trade with its northern neighbor, according to Posh Kumar Pandey, chairman emeritus of the Kathmandu-based South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment. He said the route typically carried 60 to 70 trucks a day and about 80% of Nepal’s electric-vehicle imports from China. Nepal’s Department of Immigration said electronic records showed 89 Nepali and foreign nationals had cleared immigration to leave Nepal for Tibet before the flood, while four people had entered Nepal. Four immigration employees went missing, including the head of the Rasuwagadhi office, whose body was later recovered downstream.