Australian tunnelling expert Professor Arnold Dix has reached Nepal and joined the rescue operations at the flood-ravaged Himalayan hydropower projects, describing the ongoing search for workers who may still be alive underground as a challenge unlike anything he has faced before.
Dix arrived in Nepal on September 5 to join the search operation at the Chilime Hydropower Project, after initially assisting remotely from Australia. Before heading to the disaster zone, he visited the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu and sought blessings.
Two days later, Dix explained the moral dimension of the operation in terms that went beyond engineering and disaster management. Reflecting on his experience of rescuing 41 workers from the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, he contrasted what he called the Western understanding of duty with an idea deeply rooted in the philosophical and dharmic traditions found in India and Asia.
“Western traditions might call this duty,” Dix wrote. “We do what is right because it is our responsibility, even when success is uncertain.”
“Asian traditions offer another powerful idea: dharma.”
For Dix, the distinction is particularly relevant when rescuers cannot know whether their efforts will succeed.
“The test is not simply whether we succeed,” he wrote. “It is whether we continue to do what is right when the path becomes harder, the responsibilities multiply, and the outcome cannot be known.”
He concluded with a principle that has become central to his Nepal mission: “We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon.”
The words come as Nepal continues a massive search-and-rescue operation following the August 26 glacial collapse and catastrophic flooding along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor.
As of September 7, more than 1,300 people had died and more than 5,500 were reported missing. Around 900 hydropower workers are believed to be missing, with about 500 thought to be trapped underground.
The rescue of two Nepalese hydropower workers after nine days underground has, meanwhile, provided a powerful reason for teams to continue looking.
Arnold Dix is an Australian geologist, engineer, lawyer, barrister and professor of engineering who specialises in tunnelling, underground infrastructure, and disaster response as well as risk management.
He has spent decades working at the intersection of geology, engineering, underground construction, safety and law. Dix holds qualifications in science and law and has served as president of the Geneva-based International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA). His professional work includes advice on tunnel safety, underground infrastructure, and disaster response as well as risk management.
Dix became a familiar face to Indians in November 2023 when he joined the rescue operation at the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand.
Forty-one workers had been trapped underground after the tunnel collapsed on November 12. The rescue lasted 17 days and involved several unsuccessful or abandoned approaches before specialist rat-hole miners manually excavated the final stretch.
All 41 workers were eventually brought out alive on November 28.
Dix became one of the most visible technical figures in the operation and was widely credited with helping guide the increasingly cautious strategy after heavy machinery encountered difficulties.
