MAHENDRANAGAR, Sept 7: The house of Sita Sunar at Bhujela village of Bhim Data municipality- 11 was completely destroyed in the Mahakali River flooding a few months back which displaced hundreds of families and inundated large swathes of arable lands in Kanchanpur and Darchula district.
Now only the wreckage remains on the ground where the house once stood. Tired of waiting for a relief package from the state, Sunar has left for India for good in search of a new beginning.
Like Sunar, hundreds of flood victims in these districts have gone to India after their hope of receiving government´s aid were dashed. [break]
The raging river had breached its banks and entered human settlement through the zero point at Nepal-India border. When India has already constructed an embankment a kilometer away from the zero point, Nepal has taken no steps in preventing the flooding.
“Who wants to die of starvation? One would rather head to India and eke out a living by working as a laborer,” says Mundari Lohar, Sunar´s neighbor.
Lohar, 71, who owns three other houses along the Mahakali riverbed, is in dilemma himself as he feels that the danger has not ended yet.
“The monsoon clouds are still hovering in the sky, and they can unleash catastrophe anytime. I pray my family won´t have to go through similar travail,” said Lohar of the Sunar family.
The local residents of Bhujela village have been loosing one thing or the other each year to the Mahakali flooding, and the government rarely comes to their rescue.
Though thousands of households have been displaced over the past few years, there is the government has hardly any record of the victims.
“There is no record of how many victims have left for India but the number is certainly increasing every year,” complains another victim, Rakhi Buda.
His house was deluged four years ago and also this year, and his fields were completely swept away this year. “We don´t know how long do we have to live in such woeful condition. There is no single night that I have slept well after the floodwater gushed inside our house earlier this year,” adds Buda.
According to Buda, the local administration had promised a relief package worth Rs 20,000-but it is yet to be delivered.
“Thousands of families at wards 11, 12 and 13 of Bhim Datta municipality are at a great risk of flooding if the monsoon rain does not subside soon,” said Khem Bahadur Gurung, a local resident.
Meanwhile, Chief of Jantako Tatbandha Karyaram Office (People´s Embankment Program Office) at Mahendranagar, Aatmaram Roy, claims that the temporary embankments constructed at various parts of the district have averted flooding to a large extent.
But the locals maintain that such temporary structures, which are usually built in the face of the flooding get swept away shortly after they are built.
They argue that permanent dams or embankments are needed to address the problem.