People in fear and suffering amid monsoon havoc

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Aug. 10: Incessant rains continued to affect life across the country on Tuesday, with Madhes and Sudurpashchim provinces bearing the brunt. 

According to our Dhalkebar correspondent, the Kamala River has started to flow over the embankments built to contain it at Ganeshman Charnath Municipality Ward No. 7, Dhanusha.

The river has swollen and has begun to flow over the embankments constructed 200 metres west of the Kamala Barrage, according to the District Police Office. Police Inspector Bikram Sah informed that personnel from the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police are working to control bank erosion by dropping sand-filled sacks into the river.

Many places in Tarai, which was reeling under a drought just a few days ago, are now inundated. In Mahottari, the Ratu Khola has damaged many structures and flooded several settlements, as reported by our Bardibas correspondent. 

In Patu village, the river, known as the sorrow of Mahottari district, has damaged a canal, that was constructed very recently at a cost of Rs. 8 million, and a suspension bridge. 

Birat Bista, chairman of Bardibas Ward No. 3 where the village is located, said the river was also threatening the source used by the Bardibas Drinking Water Project.

The Badhari River has also flooded, submerging large parts of the municipality’s wards 7 and 9.

Many areas in Rautahat have also been submerged by floods in the Bagmati and Jhanj rivers. According to Dharmanath Chaudhary, chairman of Durga Bhagwati Rural Municipality Ward No. 5, about 100 houses in Badharwa are currently underwater. The displaced residents are currently taking refuge at the Bagmati Dam and have been provided with food items. 

Similarly, the dam built on the Lalbakaiya River at Bairiya, Rajpur Municipality Ward 9 collapsed Tuesday night and flooded Auraiya, Banjarha and Bairiya villages.

In Kailali, our Dhangadhi correspondent writes that 250 houses have been displaced by floods across the district. Much of the flooding has occurred in Bhajani Municipality where people have had to leave their homes and move to safer schools and buildings and to higher ground along the Postal Highway, informed Ganga Ram Chaudhary, a resident of Bhajani and a member of the House of Representatives. 

“We are totally destroyed today,” Bikram Chaudhary, chairman of Bhajani Ward 3 and spokesperson for the municipality, told The Rising Nepal. 

Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Sudurpashchim Province Kamal Bahadur Shah has instructed the concerned authorities to clear the Bhimdutta Highway as soon as possible. A landslide at Bhawar Budhitola in Godawari Municipality Ward No. 4 blocked the highway Monday evening and, as of Tuesday evening, it had not yet been cleared.

Taplejung in Koshi Province has not fully recovered from the devastating flood and landslide that hit it in June. Now, locals are worried that they will have to experience the pain again. It has not stopped raining in the district since Monday evening.

Dead and missing

Sajan Pariyar, 35, and his wife Maya Pariyar, 30, were swept away by the Kamala River at 11 am on Tuesday. They were swept away from Portaha and had been missing since then. However, their bodies were discovered on Wednesday at 1 pm at Barmajhiya, Ganeshman Charnath Municipality Ward No. 9.

In Mahottari, Javir Ansari, 38, has been missing since Tuesday night. He was swept away by the Madaha River when he was going to Gaushala from Sanema Rural Municipality–1.  

Two bodies have been found in Makwanpur’s Bhorleni, Bagmati Rural Municipality–5. Akkal Bahadur Syangtan, 60, and Shila Pahari Syangtan, 22, were swept away, along with their home, by a landslide that hit Sikre Dobhan on Tuesday. Their bodies were found on Wednesday.

(With inputs from our Dhalkebar correspondent Vijay Kumar Sah, Bardibas correspondent Rabindra Upreti, Gaur correspondent Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Dhangadhi correspondent Abinash Chaudhary, Taplejung correspondent Chandra Pandak and Makwanpur correspondent Rammani Dahal.)