RAUTAHAT, August 19: Nearly five hundred Dalit households have been affected by floods in Durga Bhagwati Rural Municipality-4, Rautahat. Among them, around than two hundred families have been displaced while 104 houses have been swept away.
Dushad community has suffered the most from the flooding. They have started living in tents near the Bagmati river embankment. Surendra Hajari, who started living in tents after her home was swept away, said, "The government should help us provide housing facilities as we have to manage both family and livestock in our tents."
Locals have sleepless nights due to fear of flood
Another victim, Siriya Paswan, said, "It is hard for women, especially because we have to make the beds, cook food, sleep and change clothes under the same tent without any privacy."
Birendra Sah, a social worker, said that reconstruction of the households must commence soon as the whole Dalit community has been displaced. He added that the government only provided 387 tents and thirty sacks of beaten rice which is not enough for more than 400 households.
Rautaht's Chief District Officer (CDO) Uddhab Bahadur Thapa said that the relief materials sent by the government as well as other institutions and individuals are being distributed to the victims living in remote areas.
Altogether 170 sacks of rice, beaten rice, packed noodles and biscuits arrived in the flood affected areas of the district on Friday provided by the private sector. However, the victims are dissatisfied with the meager aid demanding that each of them should be provided the relief.
