Bhat is among scores of youths from dozens of villages by the riverside who have been keeping a constant vigil against the rising water level in the river throughout the night in the face of recent torrential downpours.
It´s a very tormenting experience for these youths as they are yet to come in terms with the destruction caused by a massive flooding in the river some two months ago.
“A beautiful village during the daytime could suddenly turn into a ford at night. Rising water level in the river keeps us on our toes as the river could breach its banks and deluge the village anytime,” says Kailash Pandeya, a social activist. [break]
And this is not the first time they are keeping the vigil. The scene is played out year after year during the monsoons in large swathes of land in the inner Tarai part of the district.
And, the locals, who have kind of accepted to live with this harrowing reality, have numerous shocking stories to narrate.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a teacher, says when he set out for his school a few years back, he was perplexed when he could not locate the school. Then he saw a group of students by the riverbank and came to realize that the school used to be there.
Dozens of villages situated by the river three year ago have already vanished in the flood, informs Dharmananda Bhatta, a local. “Most of the fertile land in Jogbudha and Sirsha VDC has been eroded. We had never imagined that our village would change so quickly,” adds Bhatta.
According to Bhatta, the old settlements at Mauri, Hastd, Godam and the villages across the Rangun River were completely swept way by the river without a trace.
Jogbudha VDC has lost most of the villages in the flood. The VDC has lost its Kayanpani, Sarkunda, Thandajhala, Simalkhet, Tatapani, Karali, Bhorkunda among other old settlements.
Around half dozen villages from Sirsha VDC have also been vanished in the flood.
Bali Sing Bohara, a technical assistant in Sirsha VDC, informs that the Mahakali, Pantura, Sandai and Rangoon Rivers have been the sore of the district, flooding dozens of villages and causing the increase in the number of displaced people.
“It is not that the state has not done anything in the region to contain such disasters. But the disaster control efforts have not been much effective as the fund has not been used appropriately,” adds Ramesh Paneru, a local.
Over two billion rupees from government and non-governmental sides, including the UN programs, has already been invested in the area in the past five years to control various rivers. Nevertheless, the rivers continue to wreak havoc unabated.
“Dozens of people lose their lives each year in the rainy season. Leaders express their commitment to control the rivers but no tangible program to conserve the area has been started yet,” complains Narayan Datta Bhatta, a teacher at Siddarthanath Higher Secondary School.
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