Many Nepalis swept away in the floods aren't officially dead, leaving families in limbo

ByAzadeh Moshiri South Asia correspondent.

Key points

• The administration puts damage to personal belongings alone at £123 million ($165 million) throughout more than 8, 300 households.
• Nepal's latest assessment counts 7, 570 private buildings damaged or destroyed, home to almost 33, 000 residents based on census data.
• Betrawati straddles flood-devastated Rasuwa and Nuwakot, and is part of the Bidur municipality, where the administration estimates more than 3, 000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
• With more than 5, 000 individuals still missing and the administration ending rescue operations, this is the only way individuals like Lawat can honour the dead.
• Section 40 of Nepal's Civil Code does allow for some exceptions, but it does not have a provision for disasters like the flood witnessed last month.

At the Pashupatinath temple, on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Madan Lal Lawat joined other families in honouring loved ones who were lost when a deadly flood tore through the China-Nepal border last month.

When a body cannot be recovered, a symbolic effigy is created from sacred "kusha" grass to represent the dead, allowing relatives to perform last rites, in Hindu tradition.

Five of his relatives – including his brother – were caught in the water's onslaught and are still missing. Lawat survived since he was driving his bus outside his village, Betrawati.

In practice, the last Lawat heard from survivors is that his brother Mangal died while going door-to-door, trying to warn others to leave.

"I don't know how to start over. Police say they're still searching for the bodies, but I'm not sure they'll ever be discovered, " Lawat states. He has little doubt they are dead.

But legally, their fate is far more complicated. In Nepal, a missing person is only presumed dead after 12 years.

Families like Lawat's have informed the BBC they are struggling to obtain death certificates, affecting everything from accessing flood compensation to the transfer of properties and even inheritance.

Relatives can receive up to 25, 000 rupees (£122; $162) for funeral costs, along with regarding 200, 000 rupees (£981; $1, 302) in bereavement compensation for the first relative who died, and 100, 000 rupees (£491; $651) for each further death.

But this is only feasible once they submit a death certificate. So as families try to rebuild their lives, plenty of are now caught in an administrative nightmare.

"In view of the current disaster, the law is outdated, " notes constitutional law expert, Bipin Adhikari.

He explains the law was meant to account for individuals who travelled abroad and weren't heard from for years. "But technology has advanced now, it isn't as difficult to send or receive information, " he argues.

For Lawat, the legal minefield has created an already devastating loss even harder to navigate.

When he tried to obtain a death certificate last week, authorities at the local municipality office turned him away. "They remarked they're still discussing the death certificate problem. We aren't sure what to do now. There's so much uncertainty, " he tells us.

Even when bodies are recovered, identifying their identities is a slow and challenging task. More than 1, 400 bodies have been recovered so far, and Nepal has little experience in processing DNA at such scale. In some cases, authorities have taken DNA samples, then buried the bodies with markers in the ground, should families claim them.

Given the scale of damage and loss, families say compensation is desperately needed.

For context, the BBC visited Lawat's village Betrawati just days after the disaster, once the roads to the district of Rasuwa had been cleared. For days, this area had been cut off from the capital Kathmandu, and struggling with a shortage of basic supplies including petrol.

In practice, the damage in the village was staggering. The ground was nothing but hardened mud and silt. Footage of the flood indicated it had swallowed most of the village in just minutes. There was no sign of its bustling market, the local Uttargaya School was in ruins, the houses swept away, and school buses were turned over.

Betrawati straddles flood-devastated Rasuwa and Nuwakot, and is part of the Bidur municipality, where the administration estimates more than 3, 000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed. It's the largest amount of any municipality.

Local governments are now urging the prime minister's office to figure out a way to resolve the death confirmation matter. "Everything is on hold, " Bidur's Mayor, Rajan Shrestha, informed the BBC.

He remarked it could take up to 12 years for relatives to access the funds they are entitled to.

For one of South Asia's smallest economies, finding funds for compensation is a challenge, and the sums on offer are small when compared with the scale of the losses.

For context, the administration puts damage to personal belongings alone at £123 million ($165 million) throughout more than 8, 300 households.

Though this figure is only based on census data and modelling, and doesn't represent the exact cost per family, this implies losses of regarding £14, 800 ($20, 000) on average per household.

Meanwhile, the financial toll makes the death certificates vital for families trying to recover from the disaster.

Shrestha is calling on the federal administration to resolve the problem as shortly as feasible. Until then, he notes his hands are tied.

"We understand the emotional pain for families who have already performed funeral rituals, but officials must work within legal boundaries to avoid future liabilities."

Notably, the administration has informed the BBC it is trying to find a solution.

In an official note, the prime minister's office remarked it was "aware of the difficulties" the law may cause families in "exceptional circumstances, including disasters". The home ministry remarked the administration was taking the matter seriously and was ready to amend the law, if required.

For context, the legal hurdles families are facing comes as Nepal faces a steep reconstruction bill. It the administration states could cost up to £3.6bn ($4.8bn).

At the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Balen Shah explained rebuilding the country would require more than 10% of its gross domestic product, an enormous burden on the country's economy.

Dozens of public buildings including schools, health clinics and hospitals have been wrecked by the floods. That's along with roads, bridges, wastewater treatment plants and hydropower projects.

Shah is now pushing for grant-based international backing rather than new loans. Nepal is one of the lowest emitters of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet one one of the most vulnerable countries to global warming.

"When a climate-driven disaster destroys infrastructure of a poor country, the answer cannot simply be another mega-loan or a patchwork of small grants, " he informed a room full of world leaders.

This is not the first time Nepal has had to recover after a devastating natural disaster. For Tisum Ghale, the past month has been painfully familiar.

He and his family lost their home in an earthquake in 2015, and became displaced for months. They eventually settled in Betrawati.

But the place that was once a refuge is where 19 of his relatives were killed in last month's flood, including five of his sisters. He survived since he was doing construction work outside of the village. Once again, he is without a home. "I have lost everything, " he remarked.

In short, many Nepalis swept away in the floods aren' t officially dead, leaving families is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.