<img width="893" height="365" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141156/636a60c99c7e80680e056e98jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Rautahat MP Mohammad Aftab Alam, currently in police custody charged with murder, has refused to take a polygraph test, angering the police and making a mockery of the law. In fact, everything about this case has been mocking the rule of law for the past 12 years.Before Nepalis could enjoy Dasain and witness C<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/what-is-xi-jinpings-big-surprise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hinese President Xi Jinping’s visit</a> this month, they were shocked by the revelation of the Rajpur Farhadwa massacre, which had been covered up since 2008, and its perpetrators had gone scot free. The terrifying stories that have surfaced have shocked the nation, offering proof of the criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime in Nepal.  Nepali Congress politician Aftab Alam is accused of burning dozens of people alive in a brick kiln. A day before the first Constituent Assembly election in 2006, several people were making improvised explosives bombs at a farm house in Rautahat, Farhadwa - 4. The house belonged to Sheikh Idris, a deceased NC politician and relative of Alam.An influential leader in Rautahat, Aftab Alam wanted to win the CA election at any cost, and decided to import Indian bomb-makers to place explosives at various election booths to scare voters and capture the booths. He had collected raw material for bomb-making, arms and ammunition from across the border.  While the explosives were being assembled, they accidentally went off at the farm house, killing three people and injuring many. Those injured were rendered unconscious with injections, and thrown into the furnace of a nearby brick kiln along with the bodies of the dead. The number of those whose bodies were disposed of that day is not known, but is said to be more than 20, including the professional bomb makers from India.Alam's apt nickname in the district is 'Tiger', and he did not want the injured to reach a hospital, and the truth to come out. The police would have taken their statements and conducted autopsies on those killed. He feared a backlash against him a day before the election, which would cost him the coveted CA seat. Instead, he resorted to an inhumane way of ‘managing’ the causalities, depriving the living of treatment and the dead of proper funeral rites.What was even more scocking was the coverup that followed in which the Nepali Congress, local police and bureaucrats appeared to be involved. The local administration seems to have assisted Alam in removing evidence of the massacre, and threatening witnesses and relatives.According to a field report by the human rights group INSEC (Informal Sector Service Centre) immediately after the crime, residents said it was the police themselves who escorted the tractor with victims to a brick kiln owned by a family member of Alam. Some of the victims were still conscious and weeping, and behind them in a car was Alam himself. Relatives and residents were terrified by what they saw. The house damaged in the blast was soon repaired, the brick kiln demolished, and all evidence destroyed.Police inspector at the time Indra Subedi was the first police officer on the scene, but was mysteriously transferred away the same night, suggesting political collusion in the coverup. Now a DSP at police headquarters in Kathmandu, he says there was no time to even start an investigation.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/state-of-impunity,2976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of Impunity</a>, Editorial <figure><img width="500" height="355" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141156/636a60cb9c7e80680e056e99jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The families of deceased Trilok Pratap Singh and Vasi Akhtar Miya organised a press conference immediately after the incident. Miya’s mother Ruksana Miya filed a complaint at the police station, but she was also murdered -- found dead a few days later with a bullet wound in her temple. There has been no investigation of any of the other deaths.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18693#.XbFoV5IzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The lords of Impunity,</a> Kanak Mani Dixit Victims were too scared and traumatised for many years, and shuttled from one government office to another. Often, officials gave them answers like "there was lack of proper investigation", "there is insufficient evidence", and "it is not necessary to file a case". The district police office, government attorney’s office, the courts, and the attorney general’s office all seem part of the nexus to protect Alam.The Farhadwa massacre is a crime against humanity, committed by the powerful to protect their power. It was covered up for more than a decade with active collusion of politicians, police and successive governments. Alam himself was elected to the constitution-drafting assembly, benefitting from respect and government protection, while the families of those massacred lived in sorrow and were threatened by the state into submission and silence. The Nepali Congress was unwilling to accept any action against Alam when the Maoist party had the majority in the CA with the Congress in the role of opposition. As the political power play continued during the post-war transition, Alam avoided investigataion and evaded justice. A Supreme Court verdict four months ago forced the state to arrest him. On 21 June, a Supreme Court bench of judges Anilkumar Sinha and Kumar Regmi ordered the Attorney General, Police Headquarters and the District Police of Rautahat to implement earlier court verdicts and present a detailed, updated report of the case to the court within 30 days.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/justice-for-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Justice for Sale</a>, Tufan Neupane  <figure><img width="640" height="416" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141156/636a60cd9c7e80680e056e9ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>While this is a shocking tale of impunity and lack of the rule of law, it now sends the message that the judiciary's role is being respected. The Farhadwa massacre is a litmus test for independent legal prosecution.Combined with the arrest of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-rise-and-fall-of-comrade-mahara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> on a charge of attempted rape, the prosecution of MPs who have resorted to violence and vandlaism in the past month show that no one can get away with crimes just because they wield power and political clout. This has restored a level of confidence in the rule of law.A lot now will depend on whether the Mahara and Alam investigations are independent and the verdicts are implemented. Alam’s emissaries are already trying to woo the relatives of the victims with money, imploring them to take back their accusations. The victims are terrified that if Alam is released, their lives will be in danger.Mahara himself is said to be reluctant to give up his Speaker's chair, and is resisting persecution, alleging a political conspiracy against him by rivals. Everyone who had a part in committing or covering up the Fardawah massacre must be brought under the purview of the law and receive maximum punishment. Justice in this case is necessary not just for the victims, but also to send a message that the rule of law is not dead in Nepal.Violence on this scale cannot be justified, it is not related to any political philosophy or the religion of the perpetrators.The Farhadwa massacre will be a milestone in turning back the tide of impunity in Nepal. The ruling NCP touts stability and prosperity as its slogans. There can be no stability without good governance, and there can be no prosperity without ordinary citizens feeling that they have the full protection of the law. No matter how powerful the perpetrators.  Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-rise-and-fall-of-comrade-mahara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The rise and fall of Comrade Mahara</a>, Sewa Bhattarai and Sanghamitra Subba

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Getting away with murder

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ef69c7e80680e04fce2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>TOO POOR TO MATTER: The bamboo shed that serves half the 124 students enrolled at Uma Primary School in Rautahat district. PHOTOS: Gargee Pradhan Shrestha</figcaption></figure>From afar, a little bamboo and mud hut looks like the many cowsheds that dot this district in central Tarai.But it is actually a classroom for some of the 124 students enrolled in Uma Primary School and their two teachers. A nearby cement building that houses a single, tiny furniture-less classroom looks less than inspiring. On the best days, the hut struggles to hold all the children, but <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tarai-learns-from-past-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with monsoon rains in full swing</a>, the children are always wet.“Where do I even begin with the list of problems our school faces,” says Principal Munni Kumari Pandey, “a proper school building with desks and chairs, classrooms in which students actually fit, a compound wall so children are safe from the road, and we want more teachers.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/after-quantity-nepals-education-needs-quality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">After quantity, Nepal’s education needs quality</a>, Prakriti Kandel<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ef99c7e80680e04fce3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Uma Primary School is a fitting snapshot of the state of education in Rautahat, which ranks as the worst district in Nepal for school performance. Scoring low in other Human Development Indicators like health, life expectancy, and gender equity, Rautahat trails even remote mountain districts like Humla, Bajhang and Bajura. Its literary rate (42%) is lowest in the country, only half of the men and a third of the women in Rautahat are literate.“The largest section of our budget is devoted to building roads and canals, and to help flood victims. We support schools through salaries, but upgrading their buildings is beyond our budget, and so we have to ask the central government,” explains Arun Kumar Saha, mayor of Durga Bhagawati rural municipality where the school is located.But Gokarna Dhwaj Karki, DEO of Rautahat, passes the buck right back: “Since the country went federal, the central level does not do local budgeting. The District Education Office only has enough budget to operate its own office. Municipalities have to make their own budgets, and our task is only to oversee and approve it.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lowest-common-denominator/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lowest Common Denominator</a>, Editorial<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4efd9c7e80680e04fce4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Indeed, two years after local governments were elected in Nepal’s new federal structure, there has been no palpable improvement in schools here. <a href="https://cijnepal.org.np/roadmania/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A report by Rudra Pangeni for the Center for Investigative Journalism</a> (CIJ) indicates that this is not an exception but the rule across the Tarai, as local budgets ignore the social sector and focus on infrastructure. In Rautahat and Sarlahi, several municipalities allocate half their budget to construction, and less than a fifth to education and health combined.As the country is still figuring out a new working mechanism, it is still not clear what rights and responsibilities each level has, and so real local priorities continue to get overshadowed by more showy instant development work, like roads.Officials are happy to blame Rautahat’s grinding poverty for its low school performance. Indeed, Uma Primary School serves children from the Chamar community, the lowest of the Dalits according to the traditional social hierarchy, and Muslims. Children from Dalit families often drop out of school to help out at home, and Rautahat’s Muslims who make up 20% of the population <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-muslims-on-the-margins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mostly send children to madrasahs</a>.As elsewhere in Nepal, families that can afford it, send their children to private schools. But government schools have reported increased enrolment and improved attendance when the children are provided school bags, scholarships, and lunches. But these programs are sporadic and occur only if NGOs step in.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/class-struggle-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Class Struggle</a>, Prakriti Kandel

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The last and least in Rautahat

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46ea9c7e80680e04d403jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Pic: SEWA BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>The memory of the catastrophic flood of 2017 is still fresh in the minds of the people of Rautahat district. But even though they are better prepared now, there have been no moves to address the cause: floodplains of rivers blocked by embankments.Rautahat is now in Province 2 under Nepal’s federal structure, disaster management is the responsibility of local governments. But even with the arrival of the monsoon, Kathmandu and the other provinces are still wrangling over power devolution. Ironically, the Bagmati that burst its banks here two years ago, originates in the Kathmandu Valley.The 2017 Disaster Risk and Management Act farmed out responsibilities of preparedness, rescue and relief to central, provincial, and local governments. Province 2 has passed its own Disaster Management law, but it exists only in paper. By the time it is ready, the central Tarai could drown in another flood. Experts say that the rampant construction of road embankments, levees and settlements along the floodplains on both sides of the India-Nepal border will make future floods much worse.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29068&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flood of recrimination</a>, Editorial<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29099&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal Tarai learns from past floods</a>, Sewa Bhattarai“We have a total of Rs150 million in the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and in the ministry’s own disaster fund,” says Arun Jha at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law of Province 2. “But we have not been able to procure rafts, tents, and food stockpiles in time. But when the flood comes, we will find a way to deal with it.”The lack of civil servants has prevented the provincial government in Janakpur from functioning at full capacity, and so, it depends on Kathmandu for everything. First responders like the Nepal Army and Police, for instance, are deployed by the central government. As the tornado disaster in Bara in April showed, the role of the Province 2 government is limited to coordination.It will take a few more years before all three levels of government start functioning smoothly to prevent and cope with disasters. Till then, Lalita Kumari Ram (pictured above), who survived the 2017 flood by fleeing to a road embankment with her family, will be on her own.Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Flood-and-food,3916" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Food and flood</a>, Sunir Pandey<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/preparing-for-the-big-flood,3190" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Preparing for the big flood</a>, Om Astha Rai

Only half prepared for floods in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a47149c7e80680e04d412jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Pic: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>At Saraswati Primary School in Bhalohiya village in the central Tarai last week, children in Class 5 sweat in the humid heat, waiting attentively for a signal. A sharp clap from Disaster Focal Person Mukesh Jha, and they are down on the floor, covering their heads with their hands. Then they walk out single file from class, form a circle in the playground and start counting aloud their pre-assigned numbers.The students are practising a drill on disaster response in these flood-prone plains bordering India.  Two years after <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/08/13/flood-of-recrimination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a devastating flood</a> that displaced more than 400,000 people, destroyed 65,000 homes and killed 143 people, parts of the Tarai are beginning to incorporate disaster management activities.Eighteen lives were lost and 325 schools were submerged here in Rautahat alone, including Saraswati School. It was repaired under the Flood Response Project funded by theBritish agency, VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) and implemented by local partner Mandvi, and supported by Be Capable Project funded by EU Aid Volunteers .Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29069&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Only half prepared</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29068&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flood of recrimination</a>, EditorialYet while disaster management is starting to attract the attention it deserves, rampant construction in the district, and across the country, is increasing vulnerability to disasters, say experts. Much of the new infrastructure actually blocks the natural drainage of rivers, resulting in flooding, especially along Nepal’s southern border.“Disruption by roads, low capacity bridges, urban expansion and embankments along the border in India constrain water flow,” says climate expert Ajaya Dixit.Inundation in the Tarai has got worse after roads were built on the Indian side, which act like dams. The damage is more severe because river basins in Nepal are already encroached by roads and human settlements where there used to be only fields or sandy riverbanks. As a result, floods that could have passed by in a few hours with minimal damage now submerge farms and towns.In 2017, heavy rainfall in the Chure catchment of the Tarai caused damage worth more than Rs60 billion, according to estimates. But such cost is set to increase, especially as rainfall patterns have become more unpredictable with the climate crisis. Higher intensity storms that drop more rain in shorter periods are becoming more common, raising the risk of sudden inundation.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dancing-with-the-river/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dancing with the river</a>, Ramesh Bhushal<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/from-nowhere-to-nowhere/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">From nowhere to nowhere</a>, Basanta Pratap SinghAmong the 49 disasters monitored by the Disaster Risk Reduction Portal under the Home Ministry, flooding is among the mostly minutely monitored. Water levels of major rivers are watched in real time, and if they cross the danger mark, the government sends out text messages to all at-risk residents or informs local disaster management committees. This early warning system was instrumental in evacuating residents and minimising the loss of lives in 2017.The Disaster Risk and Management Act 2017 prioritises the role of local governments in disaster management. “After these policies came into effect, we have prepared for floods by stocking boats, tents and other emergency materials,” says Arun Kumar Yadav, mayor of Durga Bhagwati rural municipality in Rautahat. Security forces at local levels have been trained for rescue and relief and are alerted when disaster is imminent.Though Nepal has improved its performance in rescue and relief, many parts of the Act are yet to be implemented. The government is still working on a comprehensive Disaster Information Management System, which is supposed to include information about areas at risk of hazards and the resources available nearby.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2016/07/07/bhotekosi-flood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhotekoshi flood</a><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/08/17/disastrous-unpreparedness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disastrous unpreparedness</a>, Ajaya Dixit“We have asked local level governments to start sending us this information, but they must conduct a hazard mapping in their area first for us to create a nation-wide risk atlas,” says Bed Nidhi Khanal, the under-secretary at the Home Ministry who oversees the Disaster Risk Reduction Portal. The law also requires the government to conduct drills for disasters, but until now it has only held sporadic simulations along five river basins, and has no immediate plans for systematic, nation-wide drills.Many other aspects of disaster management are missing from the law, especially prevention activities.“With increasing human encroachment on rivers, the natural drainage systems of rivers are being blocked. The reasons for the increasing severity of floods are manmade and not natural,” says watershed expert Madhukar Upadhyaya. “But there is little understanding of these processes. If we continue to ignore it, we will continue to face heavy economic loss and have to start over every year.”India must also do its part, Upadhyaya notes: “We need to take not just national but also diplomatic steps to get India to address such construction on their side of the border as well.”Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/60-years-after-1954-devastating-flood-same-failings-of-government-today-post-quake,2433" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disaster geopolitics</a>, Sharad Ghimire and Tom Robertson<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/deep-water,3883" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In deep water</a>, Editorial <h2>Gaur gears up for another deluge</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a47179c7e80680e04d413jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050">Most of Nepal’s southern plains were already vulnerable to floods from snow-fed rivers and streams from the Chure hills swelling during the monsoon. Rautahat is surrounded by rivers on three sides: Jhaajh in the west and Bagmati in the north and east. The district capital of Gaur is often inundated.In 2017, floodwaters blocked by boundary walls and embankments rose 1.5m in a matter of minutes and entire settlements of mud house were washed away, leaving residents with nothing.The Flood Response Project has built a safe house in Badharba village as an immediate relief structure. The ground floor is an open space, which can be used as a local market during normal times, and the first floor has separate rooms for men and women.Three schools in the district have been repaired (see main story), and raised hand pumps have been built at every location for drinking water during floods.Says principal Tripurari Yadav, “Drinking water is a big problem during floods because the hand pumps are submerged too.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/mycity/2016/07/10/bhotekosi-flash-flood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fleeing flash food</a>, Gopen Rai<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a471b9c7e80680e04d414jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="938">At Badharba, villagers were gathered around a local pond under a sweltering sun for a drill. Rescuers staged a simulated rescue of a drowning man, and trained locals to make temporary life jackets from plastic bottles. Drills are compulsory under Nepal’s Disaster Risk and Management Act passed in 2017, but until now the focus has been on early warning, rescue and relief.“The Tarai does not just have flood risk, there are multiple hazards. Wild animals and snakes pose a great threat, and so do earthquakes. We identify these and plan for them,” says Anjoo Jha of Mandvi.After the risk assessment, residents who panicked in 2017 and ran to road embankments, say they feel better prepared to face future floods. Lalita Kumari Ram says the drills are reassuring: “Now these exercises have made us better prepared for future floods that are sure to come.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/07/11/chure-denudation-and-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chure denudation and floods</a><h2>In the driver’s seat</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a471e9c7e80680e04d415jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In many communities in the Tarai, women are still semi-veiled in public and hesitate to speak to strangers. But Geeta Devi is quite a sight, driving her e-rickshaw around town with a big smile on her face, waving at passersby.The 32-year-old mother of four was trained to drive an e-rickshaw by Mandvi, an NGO that works on flood management in Rautahat. Geeta Devi lost her farm and livestock in the 2017 flood, so she has joined her driver husband behind the wheel.Her teenage son and daughter are studying in Kathmandu, and their mother is determined to earn enough to give them the education she never had. Mandvi, which is supported by British volunteer agency VSO, trained six other women and helped them get loans to buy e-rickshaws.Geeta Devi earns an average of Rs500 per day ferrying people around Gaur for up to three hours after her husband comes home. She does not take fares outside the municipality because the roads are bad.“When they see a woman driving, some are surprised,” she says, “and some laugh out loud. But that is their problem. They can laugh all they want. I like what I do.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/untold-stories-of-unsung-heroes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Untold stories of untold grit</a>, Sara Parker

Nepal Tarai learns from past floods

<figure><img width="1400" height="933" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46e59c7e80680e04d401jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Pic: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>With the advent of the monsoon, we will be flooded with stories of floods, landslides and other water-induced ‘natural disasters’ as they ‘wreak havoc’ throughout the land. Floods are natural, disasters are not.Nepal has nine dry months and three months in which we have too much water. In the rainy season, rivers used to spread along the floodplains, dissipating the force of the water. Nepalis traditionally knew better than to locate settlements on river banks. In the agrarian Tarai, farmers had learnt to live with floods and welcomed the annual replenishment of farms with vital, water-borne nutrients.To be sure, there were years when natural buffers would be overwhelmed and rivers burst their banks, eroding valuable farmlands as they changed course. But bad planning means that we have turned a predictable annual occurrence into a regular calamity.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29099&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal Tarai learns from past floods</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29069&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Only half prepared</a>, Sewa BhattaraiMore than half of Nepal’s population now lives in the Tarai, and human settlements have encroached on what used to be floodplains.Deforestation of the fragile Chure hills has increased sediment loads of seasonal rivers, causing them to flow through villages and farms. A river will find its own way to the sea no matter what we do to block its path.It is true that floods are getting more destructive, but not because there is more rain. Our attempts to control floods are making them worse.Levees built to ‘train’ rivers end up constricting their flows, embankments often act as dams blocking the natural course and submerging huge tracts of farmlands. Roads have been built on elevated land to prevent them from flooding, but they just make the floods worse.Many roads just on the other side of the border in India have inadequate drainage and create vast reservoirs on the Nepal side every year. Meanwhile, tv news in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh blames Nepal for releasing water from its dams — not bothering to explain that Nepal has only one reservoir and the sluice gates of the three border barrages are under Indian management.After every disaster like Sunsari (2008), Bardia and Surkhet (2014), Saptari and Rautahat (2017) and Bhaktapur last year, there is a flood of recrimination, blaming nature and bemoaning our lack of preparedness. Rescue agencies are usually at the scene quickly, but are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the disaster. Relief and rehabilitation is mired in bureaucracy and corruption, with villagers still waiting for help decades later. Poverty-stricken farmers are impoverished even more, and floods force many to migrate.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/07/11/chure-denudation-and-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chure denudation and floods</a><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/mycity/2016/07/10/bhotekosi-flash-flood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fleeing flash food</a>, Gopen RaiOnce the monsoon tapers off in September, we will forget about floods for another year. Instead of taking preventive measures to improve drainage and poorly designed infrastructure that block the natural flow of rivers, it will be back to business as usual.Most of the flood damage in the Tarai is not caused by Nepal’s four big rivers, but by Chure streams that are dry most of the year and become raging muddy torrents during the monsoon. The paradox is that boulder and sand mining in the Chure hills to feed the infrastructure boom in Nepal and India actually make these floods more destructive in the Tarai and downstream in India.As we learn from a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tarai-learns-from-past-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">field report from Rautahat this week</a> most flood victims are poor, and neglecting them comes naturally to the state. Because not enough is being done to prevent destructive floods, relief agencies are turning their attention to early-warning systems and the management of disasters after they happen.Making all these problems more difficult is the climate crisis, which is leading to more extreme weather events. Monsoon cloudbursts are said to be more frequent and intense, and cause localised flooding. And then there are disasters like the Sunsari flood, which have nothing to do with heavy rainfall or global warming, but are caused by contractors stealing boulders from the Kosi’s eastern levee, thus weakening the embankment.Sunsari was just a rehearsal for a future Kosi mega-flood that is waiting to happen, and will hit millions in Nepal and India. It is a given that floods elsewhere will also get more destructive in the years to come. Preventing them requires understanding nature’s ways, and letting rivers flow free again.With federalism, flood prevention, management and emergency relief is no longer just the responsibility of the Kathmandu apparatus. In fact, first responders by definition have to be local governments, and the state needs to enhance their flood prevention and management capacity.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/deep-water,3883" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In deep water</a>, Editorial<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/60-years-after-1954-devastating-flood-same-failings-of-government-today-post-quake,2433" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disaster geopolitics</a>, Sharad Ghimire and Tom Robertson10 years ago this weekTen years ago this week, in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/457" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issue #457</a> of 19-25 June 2009, Everest summiteer Billi Bierling wrote a story titled ‘The Bright Side of Everest’. Her words could as valid today:‘Mount Everest often gets bad press for commercialisation and the lack of morality of its climbers. But I saw a different side this spring. On 22 May, two mountaineers from Austria and the Netherlands found an American climber sitting at the Balcony, just above Camp 4 ,at about 8,400m. He was clearly confused, and he had taken off his gloves and parts of his down suit. Had these two climbers not helped, the man would have died.Several doctors saved the life of a Sherpa, who nearly died after he had consumed a bottle of whiskey adulterated with methanol. There are gruesome books about Mt Everest: the commercialisation, greed, selfishness and crime. This season, I saw none of that, only humanity, generosity and courage. If I were to write a book about Everest (which I promise I will never do) I’d probably call it 'The Bright Side of Everest.’<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/457"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46e89c7e80680e04d402jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1249"></a>

Flood of recrimination in the Nepal Tarai

https://youtu.be/7NAkdUC4j7oIt was raining hard that Tuesday night on 11 September in Chandrapur of Rautahat. In the Das family home, teenage sisters Samjhana and Sushmita told their parents they were going to bed.The thatched roof, single-storey house had three rooms, one where the two sisters slept and another for their step-mother and younger sister. Their father, Jadolal Das, and his son walked to the family's pool room that they rented to locals.Sushmita remembers being woken up about midnight by her sister’s screams. Then she felt a burning pain in her own hands and body. Neighbours rushed to the house on hearing the sisters’ cries, their step-mother was confused and did not know why the two were screaming.Read also: '<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/corrosive-conduct/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corrosive conduct</a>', EditorialAfter the neighbours figured out that this was an acid attack, they took the sisters to a tap and washed the burns. The girls were rushed to Kirtipur Hospital in Kathmandu after a local hospital said treatment was not possible.Both sisters writhed in pain throughout the bumpy seven hour ride all night to reach Kathmandu at 9AM. Sushmita remembers her sister’s blistered face contorted in pain, and her hair scalded. “I was so scared the whole time,” she said.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/four-fold-increase-in-reported-rape-in-10-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four-fold increase in reported rape in 10 years</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-does-the-nepali-media-cover-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How does the Nepali media cover rape?</a>, Bhrikuti RaiThe burn ward in Kritipur Hospital reeked of disinfectant. Sushmita was at the corner of the ward with bandages on her right hand and neck. Her sister lay bandaged and covered in a blanket in the Intensive Care Unit nearby.The heart monitor was beeping, and there was the sound of rough breathing. A visitor called out her name. She replied “hajur” in a trembling voice. It was too painful for her to talk. She had burns over 35% of her body, including her head, chest, back and face.Plastic surgeon Surendra Basnet had already performed one operation on Samjhana that morning, but warned the prognosis was not good.The nurses were dressing Sushmita’s wounds, which were not as serious. She was crying, praying for her sister. “I did not even know what acid was, I did not know it could burn you like that,” she said, in a weak voice.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923119c7e80680e03a161jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="584"/><figcaption>Pahilopost.com</figcaption></figure>Outside, in the corridor was the girls’ father Jadolal Das. But also hovering around making phone calls and holding hospital bills was a neighbour, Rambabu Paswan. When quizzed about his relation with the family he said: “I am a neighbour, but I am like a father to the girls. I watched them grow up.”Asked if he suspected anyone, Paswan told us Jadolal Das had a long-standing feud about property with his elder brother. He added: “She had just straightened her hair a few days ago, and was looking very pretty, I cannot believe she will not look like that anymore.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/republic-of-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republic of rape</a>, Editorial<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/justice-for-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Justice for Sale</a>, Tufan Neupane<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923139c7e80680e03a162jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1067"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The sisters’ mother, whom Jadolal Das had divorced, was working in Malaysia. Samjhana had dropped out of Grade 10, and Sushmita was in Grade 8. The family had some savings, but friends in Chandrapur raised money for the sisters’ treatment.A few days after Nepali Times visited the hospital, police arrested Rambabu Paswan, the neighbour who had told us the sisters were “like daughters to me”. Police found that he had made 180 calls to Samjhana over the fortnight prior to the attack. Samjhana confirmed to her father that Paswan was the attacker, and he would call her often to propose sex. (See box.)On Monday 24 September, at the age of 18, Samjhana died of multiple organ failure. Doctors had performed three surgeries, and although they tried their best, they could not save her life. She was taken back to Chandrapur and cremated on the banks of the Bagmati, the same river that flows down from Kathmandu Valley.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923169c7e80680e03a163jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1067"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The girls’ mother is back from Malaysia and is looking after Sushmita in Kirtipur Hospital. Police have detained Paswan, and are conducting further investigations to charge sheet him.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13549#.W6zOR3szbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acid attacks</a>, Manoj Shrestha in Biratnagar<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lenient-punishment-not-a-deterrent-for-acid-attacks,2077" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corrosive laws</a>, Binita Dahal<h4>Another day, Another acid attack</h4><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923189c7e80680e03a164jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1051">On the very day that Samjhana Das died because of her burns in a Kathmandu hospital after ten agonising days, Basanti Pariyar was coming home from Kawasoti market of Nawalparasi when she was attacked with acid and stabbed multiple times. The mother of two was set upon by her neighbour, Bimal Sripali, 37, and she is being treated at Bharatpur Hospital for stab wounds in her abdomen and head and acid burn injuries in her face, chest and hands.Police said Sripali had started divorce proceedings against his wife, and may have been making advances on Pariyar, 26, which she rejected. Basanti was with her sister and another woman when they passed Sripali, who grabbed her by the hair and poured acid on her face. Sripali has confessed to the crime, and said he went to Birganj to buy the acid.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/6369231c9c7e80680e03a165jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1107">On the same day in Pokhara, Shriya Sunar, 10, was found dead in Kodi village. She had gone to the market to buy biscuits. The post-mortem report states that the girl was raped, choked and hit on the head with stones. A Kusum Poudel, 27, and four other suspects have been arrested. Poudel confessed to the crime, and said he was drunk and stoned. Two days earlier, in faraway Jumla, a teenage girl was raped while returning home from festival. The police caught two teenage suspects.A Nepali Times investigation shows 479 girls and women have been attacked or raped in less than three months all over Nepal (see map, above). But those are just the ones reported to police, the real figure may be higher.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/perpetuating-patriarchy-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Perpetuating patriarchy in Nepal</a>, Deepti Gurung<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/02/24/acid-victims-want-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acid victims want justice</a><h2>Total rape and attempted rape cases 17 July to 28 September 2018 in province 1, 3 and 4.</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/6369231f9c7e80680e03a166jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="313"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923229c7e80680e03a167jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="262"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923249c7e80680e03a168jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="301"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><h2>Update: Total rape and attempted rape cases 17 July to 28 September 2018 in Kathmandu Valley</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923269c7e80680e03a169jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="487" height="198"><h4>A father's story</h4>I own a Pool Centre which is about a kilometre away from the house. My son and I sleep there because there isn’t enough room at home. That night, I said bye to my family after dinner and left for the pool room with my son. It was raining heavily and I could barely sleep because of the noise on the roof. At midnight, I got a frantic call from my wife and all I could hear were her cries. I woke up my son and we rushed home.The room was full of a smoky, stinky smell. I saw the dread in the faces of my daughters. I had no idea what had happened there. The neighbours had already called an ambulance, but it was late so I took my injured daughters in a borrowed scooter to nearest Chakor Hospital.For two hours, the doctors applied medicines and bandages on the burns, but then suggested that I take them to Kathmandu. An ambulance driver helped me out. The doctors gave my daughters painkillers and we drove off at 3AM.Rambabu Paswan, my neighbour insisted that he come along. It took us seven hours to reach Kathmandu and my daughters were finally sent to the operating rooms. Sushmita had suffered 4% burns in her body, but Samjhana had 35% and was kept in the ICU. I wept when I saw her there.The Rautahat police called me up after a few days and asked me about the relationship of my daughter with Rambabu Paswan. I said we were neighbours, but the police sounded suspicious. They told me he had called her 180 times in the 15 days before the attack, but that his phone was now switched off. So, in the hospital in Kathmandu, I asked Paswan where his phone was, and he said he had lost it while sleeping outside the ICU.The next day, detectives found acid burn marks on Paswan's  fingers. I went to the ICU and asked Samjhana if Paswan was the culprit. She nodded, “Yes.” She told me haltingly how Paswan used to stalk her, and call repeatedly to proposition her.Paswan was arrested from the premises of the hospital in Kathmandu the next day, but that was no consolation for us. Samjhana died. We took her back to her hometown for her funeral so her friends could say their last goodbye. All I want now is for Paswan to be punished. Why is the government not doing anything when crimes like these are happening every day to daughters like Samjhana?(As told to Monika Deupala)Read also: #<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Here-We-Go/2013-jun-21-here-we-go-gender-violence,122" target="_blank" rel="noopener">genderviolence</a>, Trishna Rana“<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/rihana-sheikh-dhaphali-victim-of-dowry-related-violence-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My husband and in-laws left me to die</a>”, Ayesha Shakya<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161124/636923279c7e80680e03a16ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="893"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>

Monika Deupala

Daughter Slaughter

https://youtu.be/7NAkdUC4j7oThere is an argument that there has not been an abrupt rise in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/republic-of-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">number of rape cases</a> in Nepal, it is just being reported more now. It is difficult to say what is worse: that it used to be hidden, or that victims and their families are coming forward to complain to the police.That is because the high profile cases of rape and abuse in the past few months have shown that the police is actually involved in protecting perpetrators, falsely accusing the innocent, destroying evidence, and covering up the truth. Combined with cases of recent encounter killings, the actions have led to a serious erosion of the public’s confidence in the police. In fact, there may be many victims now who are not going to file a complaint because they fear harassment and fabrication.As we reported last month, the number of reported rape cases in Nepal has increased by 30% in the past year. It has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/four-fold-increase-in-reported-rape-in-10-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiplied four times</a> in ten years . There have been 479 rape and attempted rape complaints brought to the police since the horrific murder of Nirmala Panta in Kanchanpur on 26 July. A special committee assigned to investigate the case, while accusing the district police chief of covering up, came no closer to naming the suspects.Read also: '<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=14002&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daughter Slaughter</a>', Monica DeupalaThe police have been equally ineffective in tackling a surge in copy-cat <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lenient-punishment-not-a-deterrent-for-acid-attacks,2077" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acid attacks</a> in the past two weeks. The shocking case of Samjhana Das in Rautahat has once more exposed the culture of misogyny, patriarchy and impunity that corrodes our society. Men perpetrate these heinous crimes because they are brought up with a sense of entitlement and the conviction that they will never be convicted. There are also mothers-in-law and women who commit gender crimes, but by and large, it is a male-dominated activity.Acid attacks are especially horrific since they disfigure the victim for life, even if they survive. Pouring acid on a person is like burning them alive. In most cases, the root cause is the same as in rape, and often it is to take revenge for rebuffing an advance.We have reported in the past <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13549" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decades </a>in this paper about how acid attacks and bride burning are also perpetrated by in-laws for insufficient dowry. <figure><img width="800" height="769" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161120/636922d09c7e80680e03a14bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Diwakar Chettri</figcaption></figure>The survivors often lose their sight and are maimed because the acid burns through the skin down to the bone. They suffer months of excruciating pain even if they do not survive, like Samjhana Das, who died on Monday two weeks after an acid attack. Her 15-year-old younger sister, Sushmita Das, was also injured. A neighbour, Rambabu Paswan, has confessed he used acid on them because Samjhana had rejected him.Three years ago in the heart of Kathmandu, a fellow-student squirted acid on a class mate, and because it happened in the capital, the crime got wide play in the media. When the perpetrator was finally caught, it turned out to be a case of someone taking revenge against the girl’s family, who lived next door, for being taunted for being a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/on-the-road/acid-attacks-caste-discrimination,463" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dalit</a>.The case illustrates how in Nepal there are layers upon layers of pent-up grievances against injustice and discrimination. Stricter measures on the purchase of acid, and monitoring its use may be a deterrence, but as long as the root causes of gender-based violence remain, potential perpetrators will simply use another tool to attack girls and women.There is also urgent action needed to make the laws against acid attacks at least as strict, if not stricter than the ones for rape, bride-burning and other heinous crimes against women. At the moment, perpetrators only get a maximum of eight years in jail if convicted of carrying out an acid attack.Violence against women is a manifestation of the pervasive patriarchy in our culture. Misogyny is sanctioned by religious texts, folklore, movies, songs. Insulting women is taken as a joke. We have to look deeply inwards as a society to question values that we as a people seem to have come to accept as normal.Despite the new Constitution, the scale of justice in Nepal is still skewed. The persistence of gender based violence is the result of pervasive <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/justice-for-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impunity</a>, where men, powerful people, upper castes, urban dwellers, appear to have more protection from prosecution for crimes than women, lower castes, the poor, and weak.It should be the state’s responsibility -- to protect with prevention, investigation and justice -- the most vulnerable section of society. Alas, in our case, it is the most influential who are protected.It is meaningless to boast that Nepal’s Parliament has one of the highest representation of women in the world when we have such a poor record in granting women equal citizenship rights, and in protecting our mothers and sisters against crimes.Read also: '<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=14002&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daughter Slaughter</a>', Monica Deupala<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-roots-of-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The roots of Rape</a>, Kedar Sharma<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/republic-of-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republic of Rape</a> <img width="1500" height="984" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161120/636922d29c7e80680e03a14cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><h2>10 years ago this week</h2> Writing in the #416 issue of Nepali Times of 5-11 September 2008, the head of UNMIN Ian Martin wrote about the successes of Nepal’s peace process, but warned that Nepalis should not have to wait till the new Constitution (which was still long six years away then) to see an improvement in their lives. Excerpts from Martin's op-ed:Nepal’s unique peace process has rarely gained outside attention since the guns fell silent two years ago. Yet, this success story deserves to be recognised and supported. Expectations are high among diverse groups for greater control of their lives and resources. But what federalism will mean in practice, taking account of the geographic and ethnic peculiarities of Nepal, remains elusive and potentially divisive. Reaching a national consensus will be a formidable task for the Constituent Assembly, and meanwhile the Nepali people cannot be expected to wait patiently until a new constitution is drafted to see real improvement in their daily lives.But there is reason to be hopeful. Nepal’s peace process has been truly indigenous: it has not been mediated or managed by any external party. The UN has encouraged and facilitated the process through good offices during the last years of the conflict, human rights monitoring, assistance to the election, and monitoring arms and armies during the transition. <img width="510" height="797" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107161120/636922d59c7e80680e03a14djpeg.jpg" alt="">