Rachana Upadhyaya 

I still vividly remember two children floating on a piece of white styrofoam in the waterlogged Koteshwor-Suryabinayak six lane highway. In their childish naivety, making the most out of the Hanumante River flooding that inundated neighborhoods within few kilometers from the river. In the highway, along with the children on styrofoam, also floated the rafts of Nepal Army that were used to rescue people trapped in the lower floors of their homes.

As reported by the Bhaktapur District Administration office, the incessant rainfall for two days damaged property worth Rs. 119.35 million in Bhaktapur district. Hundreds of people were displaced and three lives were lost. It was 2018.

Last year the flooding was not as bad in Bhaktapur but nearly similar scenes were repeated in western part of Kathmandu where Balkhu River swelled after torrential rains and inundated Balkhu and Kuleshwor areas. This year with an onset of pre monsoon rain a few days back, Panauti, a historical city just outside Kathmandu valley, likely to be listed in the UNESCO world heritage site, was inundated in knee deep water. 

With its frequency of occurrence, flooding and inundation are increasingly becoming a part of monsoon experience for Kathmanduites and dwellers of emerging cities around Nepal. Flooding in the Terai and landslides in the hills were already part of life for people living in those areas as Nepal receives 80 per cent of rainfall within few months of monsoon season. 

The untamed sprawling urban expansion of Kathmandu which is now being repeated in emerging cities around Nepal like Banepa, Biratnagar, Butwal, Bhairahawa, Itahari and Panauti, to name a few, have reported increasing cases of urban flooding and inundation in the last decade. While people living in the vicinity of a river may be prepared to brace flooding and inundation with temporary displacement measures, when faced with present situation with outbreak of an infectious disease that requires hand washing and physical distancing for prevention, flooding can put people in multiple jeopardy.  

This summer COVID-19 has brought in front an issue that existed in the fringes of national priorities any other year. Our susceptibility to multiple hazard risk and ineptitude to manage them has been exposed multiple times: the cholera outbreak in Kathmandu following 2015 earthquake, the gradual escalation of dengue outbreak in monsoon every year compounded by water scarcity in some places and flooding in others. One of the areas badly flooded in Bhaktapur floods in 2018- Nikusera, was the same place that was most severely damaged by the earthquake in 2015. The frequency of disasters and their overlap makes Nepal one of the top 20 countries in the world that are multi-hazard prone. 

Every year with the onset of monsoon, when parts of Kathmandu submerge in the flood waters, the conversations around haphazard urbanisation and river encroachment emerge. As the flood water recedes, so does the public outrage and media coverage of the issue until our homes and neighborhood are submerged again. The blatant violation of the building code for last two decade is manifested in the banks of all major and small rivers in Kathmandu. The previous 20 and now 30 meters space between the river and any infrastructure is not only violated by unscrupulous real estate agents but also by the government bodies.  

For instance, the Bagmati corridor project or High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation has been constructing embankments alongside the river, and an adjoining road way. While embankments constrict the width of the river increasing the chances of flash flood during heavy rainfall, the tar roads make the flood plain impervious hindering the natural percolation of water. With haphazard development, Kathmandu meets all the prerequisites for an urban flooding disaster. 

While floods in Kathmandu have affected residential buildings and colonies, industries, and institutions built next to the river, those most affected are the urban poor. Most of the squatter settlements in Kathmandu are in river banks making those groups the most vulnerable to floods. Another group of urban poor that is not as visually apparent as the squatters are the wage labourers, often migrants from villages, living in one room dwellings in the lower floors of residential buildings- rooms that are more likely to be affected during floods. These two groups of urban poor are twice more vulnerable compared to other flood affected population in the city.  

These groups do not have insurance for their dwellings as opposed to the building owners, and as temporary residents, they are not eligible to receive support from the local government. Also in the present crisis, due to the lockdown it is the urban poor that are most affected owing to their need to work daily to make ends meet. With monsoon clouds on the horizon, floods are imminent in Kathmandu- which could lead to this very population in a quagmire of multiple risks. 

While last green spaces in and around Kathmandu are turning into impervious concrete, the city planners and disaster risk managers have a mighty task ahead- prevention of flooding. Urban concrete sprawl coupled with dense urban population, fragile stormwater systems and constricted rivers- flooding prevention in Kathmandu is an insurmountable challenge. Nevertheless, there are nascent steps being taken in managing the influx of people into Kathmandu valley, and Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA) is planning to build planned satellite city around the outer rim of the present settlement. While information about these new cities to be build is yet to be found in public domain, it is imperative that the planners must dare to boldly reimagine our future cities that are foremost inclusive of the urban poor and second flood resilient. We can turn to the first epicenter of pandemic- Wuhan, which is being developed as ‘sponge city’ with permeable walking pavements, artificial wetlands and rain garden to absorb the excessive rainfall. The new cities that are being planned should mandatorily have some per cent of ‘sponge’ feature. The mandatory recharge-pit in Dharan sub-metropolis can be a cost effective example that can be replicated.  

During monsoon, Kathmandu becomes inhospitable to better off people, to the urban poor it is lethal. With the new National Urban Strategy-2077 in the offing, it is imperative that policy makers, city planners and developers ensure provisions for flooding prevention hence reducing risk in tomorrow’s cities. 

(The author works as a researcher in Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies-SIAS specialising on issues of urban risk and resilience.)