Australian engineer and geologist Prof. Arnold Dix has described the rescue of two workers from Nepal’s Trishuli 3A hydropower project as a triumph for humanity, saying their survival has given rescuers renewed hope as they race to find dozens more missing workers.
Dix, who was invited by Nepali authorities to advise on the rescue operation, said the discovery of the two men alive after more than a week had transformed the atmosphere among exhausted rescue teams.
“We’ve found two people alive, so that gives us hope,” Dix said.
“After more than a week, everyone’s exhausted, but this spurs us on to try even harder and it now also gives us focus for how we might approach other rescues in other locations.”
“We now have proof that people can survive this long.”
Dix said the rescue had also reminded him of the 2023 Silkyara tunnel operation in India, where all 41 workers trapped underground after a tunnel collapse were brought out alive.
He said the experience had taught him never to confuse something that appears unlikely with something that is impossible.
“Right now, in Nepal, we are facing something I have never faced before,” Dix said.
“Not one rescue — but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.”
Reflecting on Silkyara, Dix said the successful rescue of the 41 workers could be viewed not as the end of a great test, but as preparation for an even greater responsibility.
“Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible,” he said.
“Nepal is teaching me something more: when several lives may depend upon us at once, hope must become discipline, compassion must become action, and duty cannot depend upon certainty of success.”
“East or West, the principle feels the same. We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon.”
Dix said Western traditions might describe the obligation as duty, while Asian traditions offered the concept of dharma — the responsibility to continue doing what is right even when the outcome remains uncertain.
The Trishuli 3A rescue has been particularly dangerous because of the scale of destruction caused by the floods.
Almost 30 hydropower projects have reportedly been damaged, with hundreds of workers missing across facilities along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers.
“Normally, I deal with a single disaster – this is 27 concurrently,” Dix said.
At Trishuli 3A, rescuers initially faced difficulties determining the location of the missing workers and identifying which tunnel could provide access to the power station.
The operation became even more dangerous when rocks the size of vehicles blocked the rescue route, forcing teams to consider the use of explosives.
Dix said explosives were not the preferred option because of the potential danger to people on the other side of the rock.
Once rescuers reached the tunnel, they discovered it was flooded and began digging an emergency trench in an attempt to drain the water.
There were fears the workers inside had already drowned.
Then, about 50 metres into the tunnel on Friday morning, rescuers heard a faint voice.
The team called out: “Don’t panic, we are rescuing you.”
A voice from inside replied: “OK.”
The two workers were subsequently brought out alive.
For Dix, the moment demonstrated why rescue work matters.
“We do it because we’re decent human beings and that’s what human beings do: help one another,” he said.
“This is a real triumph for humans and humanity.”
The rescue operation, however, is far from over.
Another 40 workers are believed to remain trapped inside Trishuli 3A, with rescuers facing the possibility of being overwhelmed by water from either direction.
Dix warned that if rescuers break through rock and encounter water trapped inside the tunnel, they could be swept away or drowned. With the rescue operation now below flood-plain level, water could also enter from behind the team.
“Yes, we have the reward of having rescued two people now, but we have to be so careful,” Dix said.
“The team’s lives are at risk right now and if they can’t get out in time they will drown. Like, this is not a drill, we are witnessing one of the great rescues of the 21st century.”
Rescuers have been working towards what Dix describes as the “Goldilocks zone” at the top of the 11-storey Trishuli 3A power station, where they hope additional survivors may be found.
More than 270 people have already been rescued from various hydropower projects.
Nepal’s disaster management agency reported 1,294 confirmed deaths and 5,053 people missing as of 4 September, including 583 foreign nationals.
The disaster has also triggered a major international response.
Thirty-eight Australian government officials, disaster response specialists and humanitarian workers are now on the ground in Nepal assisting with search-and-rescue and relief operations.
A 15-person Australian Disaster Assistance Response Team specialising in drone operations arrived in Kathmandu late on Friday, while seven Australian Federal Police disaster victim identification specialists are due to leave Australia on Saturday.
The scale of the crisis has left rescue teams confronting multiple emergencies simultaneously, but Dix said the survival of the two Trishuli 3A workers had provided something desperately needed: proof that hope can still be justified, even after days underground.
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