Nepal flood survivors still waiting for relief

Six weeks after unprecedented floods ravaged the Rosi Khola valley east of Kathmandu, what little relief has reached the survivors is from charities and volunteers.

More than 60 of the 250 people killed in the floods in Central Nepal were here in Kavre district, where the Rosi turned into a deadly mudflow from dozens quarries and crusher units upstream. Some 36 of the dead were children. 

The record breaking rain turned even more destructive because it swept debris down from the sand and stone mining operations in the catchment area of the Rosi. Sand and boulder removal by contractors along the river bed over the past decade also meant that the river was flowing at extra high velocity.

‘Khola’ in Nepal means ‘stream’, but the Rosi on the day of the deluge on 28 September looked like an angry river of mud that burst its banks and entered settlements, taking away homes, roads, bridges and a 200m portion of the BP Highway linking Kathmandu to the eastern Tarai. The damage to highways alone is Rs 2.5 billion according to the National Disaster Reduction and Risk Management Authority (NDRRMA).

The Highway has still not been repaired, and a rough bypass track along the river bank has been opened for traffic. A Himalkhabar/Nepali Times investigation last week found out that many of the owners of crushers mining the mountains to feed Kathmandu’s construction boom are local politicians who awarded front companies contracts.

Besides floods, the historic rainfall that dumped half a year’s rainfall in less than two days triggered massive landslides all over the district. The rain was so heavy that even heavily forested mountains are scarred by slope failures.

More than 9,500 houses were destroyed or damaged in the floods and landslides in Kavre and southern Lalitpur district and more than 16,000 people have been displaced. Like earthquakes in 2015 and 2023, the disaster is expected to increase the already high rate of outmigration from the affected areas.

Nearly 100 schools and 70 health posts were damaged, 54 suspension footbridges were destroyed. That is besides Nepal losing 1,200MW (half its hydropower generation capacity) although 700MW are now back in operation.

The government in Kathmandu announced a Rs200,000 cash relief to families with fatalities, however many families have not yet got the money. The NDRRMA has also announced the distribution of Rs100,000 in two installments to each family with destroyed or damaged homes for the construction of temporary shelters.

The damage that has affected local communities the most is the loss of drinking water supply, pipes bringing spring water to villages were taken out by landslides. This has meant that many local families have been forced to drink contaminated water with children becoming sick.

The NDRMMA says about 2.5 million people in Central Nepal are affected by the damage to drinking water supply because pipes, water tanks, treatment plants and other facilities were swept away. The damage is estimated at Rs3.5 billion and the Authority has appealed to donor agencies for relief.

Kavre’s Malpi City School which was also damaged in the floods, organised a fund-raiser among faculty and alumni to buy 2,000m of piping for the communities of Bethanchok which was badly hit by landslides. 

Photos: JYOTI MAN SHERCHAN, ARCHANA DARJI, AND SHAMSHAD AHMAD