Chandra Canal collapse inundates houses

By Mala Karn, Kalyanpur, Aug. 9: Floods induced by torrential rains have damaged the Chandra Canal in Saptari and inundated many houses.

According to locals, Amaha Jutpani, Satrapatra, Tyangra and other seasonal rivers of Saptakoshi Municipality have flooded and damaged the country's oldest irrigation canal built during the reign of the Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Rana. This damage has, in turn, led to submersion of dozens of houses in Ward No. 4 and has caused damages worth millions of rupees.

Bir Bahadur Magar, a resident of the area, told The Rising Nepal that the areas near the canal were under nearly six foot of water.

"It rained extremely heavily on Saturday night which caused the rivers to swell up and broke the walls of the canal," Magar said.

Meanwhile, Krishna Prasad Dhakal, mayor of Saptakoshi Municipality, informed that all 11 wards of the municipality had been affected by the downpour. Raj Kumar Ram, an employee in the municipality's Ward 1 office, said that the water from the swollen rivers had entered the ward office and destroyed important papers and computers.

Saturday's rain caused a 15-metre section of the canal within the municipality collapse and flood acres of cultivated land. The canal collapsed in two places two years ago too, destroying large areas of paddy field. 

The canal's construction began in 1923 and used to irrigate around 10,500 hectares of land. However, for the last 10 years, it has only been irrigating half that area because of the accumulation of sand.