KuGompo City businesswoman among six South Africans still missing in Nepal disaster

Bavika Ramjee, 43, of KuGompo City, was three days into her Mount Kailash pilgrimage when the floods struck

Bavika Ramjee had been looking forward to her pilgrimage to Mount Kailash for years.

And when she finally set off on the journey she had waited so long for, she had no idea that three days later, an excited conversation with her family about the pilgrimage would be the very last time they would hear from her.

A glacier collapsed near the Nepal-Tibet border the next morning, causing floods that destroyed homes, buildings and infrastructure along a 72km stretch of the Trishuli River.

Ramjee, one of six South Africans missing in a disaster that has killed more than 1,000 people, has not been heard from since.

"She was off on a pilgrimage in Kailash," her brother Bhavesh Ramjee told IOL .

The family said there had been no new updates, but they remained hopeful, despite being heartbroken by the uncertainty.

Ramjee, 43, a businesswoman of KuGompo City, formerly East London, had travelled with tour operator Kailash Journeys to walk the sacred route around Mount Kailash in Tibet, a mountain revered by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bon.

Ramjee is among 583 foreign nationals from 38 countries still unaccounted for.

About 1,068 bodies had been recovered, including 400 partial remains, while 4,606 people were still missing, Nepal police said on Tuesday.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported a further 16 deaths and 546 people missing in Gyirong county in Tibet, on the other side of the border.

The flood began high in the Lhende Khola, a tributary that joins the Bhote Koshi River at the Rasuwagadhi border crossing, on Wednesday last week.

Nepal's Department of Roads said the entire 42km road between Betrawati and Rasuwagadhi had been destroyed, along with another 16km stretch from the crossing to the border.

The Nepal Electricity Authority said 14 hydropower projects and a 220kV substation had been damaged, cutting about 431MW from the national grid.