By Sher Bahadur Sharki
Bajura, Mar. 30: Most of the flood and landslide victims in Bajura district are worried about safe place to shelter their heads than food to eat.
The floods in the local Budhi Ganga River on the night of July 10 last year swept away all of their houses and lands. Again the rainy season is coming soon and they are worried about safe place to live in.
Hira Nepali of Budhiganga Municipality-1 said that they had concerns about roof over their head and food to eat after the floods in the Budhi Ganga River brushed their houses last July.
“A landslide destroyed my house and a flood ran across my farm land. Now I have no food to eat and no house to live in. I have to take my seven children along with me whenever I go outside the village,” she said.
Nepali said that now that the villagers have got rice, pulses, salt, oil, food and clothes from various organisations, which has made their life a bit easier. “But many still worry about homes where they could live safely in the coming monsoon.”
At least 95 settlements in Bajura are listed as high-risk due to the floods in the rainy season last year. The local government assured the victims that they would be relocated but they are still staying at risk.
Although it is easy for them to make ends meet working as daily wage earners, they lack sufficient money to resettle elsewhere.
Like Nepali many other households in Gaumul Badimalika and Triveni Budhiganga have been forced to live under the open sky after floods and landslides swept away or damaged their houses.
Even though they have been spending their day to day life in their dilapidated houses during the winter months, they can't stay inside the house during the rainy season, said Nepali.
Dal Karki of Badhimalika Municipality in Ghangar said that he managed to survive the flood last year but now he suffered due to a lack of food and shelter. Even though his life was saved, his cowshed, cows and buffaloes were washed away by the flood.
The municipality had submitted a proposal in the meeting of the District Disaster Management Committee last year to relocate 59 of these settlements to other safe places.
A technical team has now been sent to the flood-prone settlements. Chief District Officer of the District Administration Office in Bajura, Krishna Gaire said that the issue of relocation would be resolved as soon as the report was received.