As it continuously rained till Saturday night from Friday evening, the Aurahai fire victims, who have been forced to spend days under the scorching sun with just very thin plastic-sheets overhead, passed the last two nights in drenched clothes. [break]
Only a week ahead of the monsoon, the Aurahi fire victims are now worried about having to spend more sleepless nights with no roofs over their heads to protect them from heavy rains.
After their houses were destroyed by the fire two weeks ago, they are living in the open, braving the heat in the day and fearing snakes in the night. With rainy season fast approaching, they have one more thing to worry about. The rain has, indeed, compounded their problem.
"We have to suffer the heat in the day and the rain lashes at us in the night," says Parmeshwori Devi Singh, whose family is living under a make-shift tent after being displaced by the fire. "Our lives are not worth living. Had I died, we would not have suffered."
As strong winds began blowing early Friday evening, Prameshwori prayed for a no-rain night. But our prayers were not answered. It rained all through the night.
Shova Ram was sleeping with her children under the tent when it started raining Friday night. "It was a horrific night," she says. "I covered my children with a mat. I also tried to save essential food items. But all our clothes were drenched. I could not sleep all night."
On Saturday, Rambilash Yadav, another fire victim, was drying up rice grains soaked in last night´s rain in the hope that he could turn it edible again. "The rain swept away much of my food grains," says Yadav, adding, "The all that I could save is also soaked with rain."
The fire victims said if shelter arrangements are made, their lives would not be as painful.
On May 15, around 3,000 houses and cattle sheds were gutted in a fire. Around 800 families have been living in makeshift tents. When he visited the fire victims, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had assured the victims to provide shelter arrangements.
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