Checking Monsoon Mayhem

Climate change, caused by global temperature rise, has been established as a real phenomenon substantiated by scientific researches and findings. But at the same time, its impacts have increasingly become unpredictable and severe. The global warming has increased the intensity and frequency of rains. The uneven precipitation has resulted in extreme wet and dry conditions.

While the extreme rains catch the people off guard, its shortfall makes the entire affected region dry. This has hampered the preparedness against the natural disasters, resulting in huge loss of lives, private houses, arable lands, crops, important infrastructure and ecosystem. Nepal has been witnessing the changing trends of rainfall for the last couple of years. This shift in the weather pattern calls for integrated efforts from the concerned stakeholders to minimise the unexpected damage. 

Imbalanced and sudden downpours have left the meteorologists scratching their head. For instance, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology has predicted that the country will receive less than average rainfall this year. But within 11 days of the start of monsoon, it began to show its fury in the eastern part of the country.  Around two dozen people lost their lives to floods and landslides in Okhaldhunga, Panchthar, Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur. At least 26 people have gone missing and 43 houses were swept away. In June, 2021, flash floods in the Melamchi River of Sindhupalchowk killed dozens of people and destroyed the property worth millions of rupees. Monsoon in Nepal starts from mid-June and ends in September.  Experts say that the places at high altitudes witness the heavy rainfall when the monsoon begins. This year, the Num region in Sankhuwasabha has received high rainfall (9387.4 mm) in the first week of monsoon. 

But, meteorologists and hydrology experts are yet to find plausible reasons as to why there is heavy rain within a short time span in some particular places. The monsoon pattern in the eastern Nepal this year is erratic and isolated compared to the previous monsoon. The region used to have rainfall regularly for months and days and sometime it was unexpected. This time it is asymmetrical – it rained a lot in one place while some other places came in the grip of dry spell. Experts have warned that the regions that saw more than normal rainfall during pre-monsoon in the northern and western hills are prone to landslides because the areas have already become wet. There was a big loss of lives and property in Sankhuwasabha monsoon floods despite the fact that Dharan-based meteorological station had alerted that the water level in the rivers would go up. This indicates that there is a gap in information flow and awareness activities at the local level. 

There should be proper study of the location for the construction of hydropower plants. A power plant built on the bank of river was damaged in Sankhuwasabha disaster. River bank sites are not safe for constructing such important infrastructure as they are likely to be swept away by the floods. A news report published in this daily states that around 1.25 million people are likely to be hit by this year’s monsoon. In order to tackle the possible crisis, the authorities have installed early warning sirens at 34 locations in most vulnerable places, initiated process to purchase emergency mass rescue vehicles and ‘A Class’ ambulances for advance notification and operations in all the seven provinces and the Kathmandu Valley. The three-tier governments should work in tandem to strengthen the capacity in weather forecasting and disaster management.