Nepal Turns to India for Emergency Power as Himalayan Flash Floods Cripple National Grid

KATHMANDU — Nepal's Ministry of Energy has formally requested advance and emergency electricity imports from neighboring India, racing to stabilize its national grid after catastrophic flash floods and debris flows severely impaired domestic hydropower generation.

The disaster, triggered by a massive high-altitude glacial collapse along the border with Tibet, tore through key river corridors last week, inundating valleys and heavily damaging multiple operational hydroelectric facilities. With hydropower accounting for more than 90 percent of the landlocked nation's total generation capacity, the sudden loss of vital plants across districts including Rasuwa and Nuwakot has cut roughly 8 percent of the country's total power capacity, threatening widespread blackouts and crippling regional energy stability.

"Repair and engineering teams are working around the clock to clear debris and resume power supplies where safe access allows, but the structural damage is immense," said Shaligram Bhandari, a spokesperson for Nepal's Energy Ministry. "To bridge immediate supply shortfalls and protect critical infrastructure, Nepal has turned to India for emergency power allocations."

The energy crunch compounds an already escalating humanitarian disaster in the region, where rescue teams continue searching for hundreds of people still missing following the deluge. While Nepal typically functions as a net exporter of clean energy to India during the high-flow monsoon months, the sudden grid deficit highlights the acute vulnerability of Himalayan green energy infrastructure to extreme climate events and glacial hazards.

Bilateral energy officials are currently coordinating grid-to-grid transfers to fast-track emergency electricity lines from northern Indian grids, aiming to avert prolonged outages for hospitals, water treatment plants, and households across Kathmandu and surrounding regions.