Many Nepalis swept away in the floods aren't officially dead, leaving families in limbo

When he tried to obtain a death certificate last week, officials at the local municipality office turned him away. "They said they're still discussing the death certificate issue. We aren't sure what to do now. There's so much uncertainty," he tells us.AFP via Getty ImagesMost of Betrawati village was swallowed up in the floods Even when bodies are recovered, identifying their identities is a slow and challenging task. More than 1,400 bodies have been recovered so far, and Nepal has little experience in processing DNA at such scale. In some cases, authorities have taken DNA samples, then buried the bodies with markers in the ground, should families claim them.Given the scale of damage and loss, families say compensation is desperately needed.Nepal's latest assessment counts 7,570 private buildings damaged or destroyed, home to nearly 33,000 people based on census data.The BBC visited Lawat's village Betrawati just days after the disaster, once the roads to the district of Rasuwa had been cleared. For days, this area had been cut off from the capital Kathmandu, and struggling with a shortage of basic supplies including petrol.The damage in the village was staggering. The ground was nothing but hardened mud and silt. Footage of the flood showed it had swallowed most of the village in just minutes. There was no sign of its bustling market, the local Uttargaya School was in ruins, the houses swept away, and school buses were turned over.Betrawati straddles flood-devastated Rasuwa and Nuwakot, and is part of the Bidur municipality, where the government estimates more than 3,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed. It's the largest amount of any municipality.