The UN fund has provisionally set aside 21.6 million for Nepal after the Rasuwa disaster, marking a first while covering less than 0.5 percent of the country’s estimated $4.7 billion recovery and reconstruction needs.

Nepal has made an emergency appeal to the UN’s loss-and-damage fund, which has yet to disburse any money. Meanwhile, families wait for relief, and the country takes on more loans to rebuild.

As floods and landslides expose the vulnerabilities of hydropower projects, Nepal’s push to generate 30,000 MW by 2035 raises urgent questions about safety, sustainability and who benefits from the country’s rivers.

Some Nepalis survived the Bhotekoshi and Rasuwa flood by luck, not by warning. Their story, and interviews with the officials who built Nepal’s flood alert system, exposes their limits and shows how a knowable risk went unmonitored for years.

Experts explain how the Bhotekoshi river got blocked and a sudden release of water combined to produce the devastating flood — and what they still don’t know.