The situation has been compounded by the fact that Nepal does not have trained emergency workers who can dive into rivers or lake to search for such victims. [break]
All that may change soon as Armed Police Force (APF) has set up a unit of trained divers to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts.
The team of 25 Armed Police Personnel from Kurintar based Armed Crisis Management Training Center recently finished one and half month long diving and rescue training in Bangladesh and are ready for deployment during emergencies.
"Lives can be lost in a second during accidents and our team is trained to rescue people in such times," said Senior Superintendent of Police Durga Bahadur Kunwar. "Our team will be deployed as quickly as we get the information about accidents."
Kumar said all the divers are trained to rescue people both under the water and on the surface. They are trained to swim 200 meters on the surface and dive as deep as 60 meters by holding their breath, informed Kuwar.
These divers are the first to receive such international diving rescue training in Nepal but still lacked adequate live saving equipment.
"Divers save lives using various equipment and materials. The more kits we have, chances of saving lives will be greater," said Kuwar.
According to Kuwar, the team will be divided into two in the next few months and posted at Koshi and Rapti River regions where most of the accidents occur. After that a group 3 divers each will be posted in all five development regions including Kathmandu valley.
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