It is a wastage of taxpayer´s money as such embankments themselves will be swept away by the flooding river with a few days--forget about preventing water-induced disasters, the local flood victims say. [break]
What exasperates the victims even more is the failure of the concerned agency to learn a lesson:
As in the previous years, the Office of Water-Induced Disaster Prevention geared up to contain the rising water level in the river by constructing the embankments only after the river began flooding its banks, eroding land at various places in Dang and Bake.
Every year, the government spends millions of rupees on "People´s Embankment Project", which constructs temporary embankments along the areas affected by the Rapti River, including Holiya VDC, which is among the worst-hit places. However, such embankments hardly last a month against the raging river.
Recently, the Office of Water-Induced Disaster Prevention constructed embankment worth 1.2 million rupees, but it was swept away within a week, forcing it to start the construction all over again.
The project officials, on the other hand, say that that´s all they can do.
The divisional engineer of People´s Embankment Project, Binod Chapagain, says that the construction works started late as the budget for the project always arrives belatedly.
"Nonetheless, had the temporary embankment not been built, the river would have sweep the entire village," he adds. But the locals won´t buy to that answer.
"If they had constructed a solid dam on time, we would have been relieved from the fear of the flood," says Pralad Dhobi, a flood victim from Holiya VDC.
"Rapti River sweeps away land and crops worth millions of rupees each year. However, the government continues to construct temporary embankments," adds Ram Faren Gupta, another victim. "The temporary embankments doesn´t help us. It is high time the government become more sensible and sensitive toward our plight and start constructing permanent dams to check the river-- if it really wants to save Holiya village."
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