Study to find causes and prevention measures of large-scale landslide in Manang begins

POKHARA, Nov 29: A study has started on a large-scale landslide in the Himalayan district of Manang that occurred in the mid June and July. The study will focus on the causes as well as prevention measures of such landslides in the future.

After the landslide destroyed the only road connecting Manang, the movement of people was affected for months. Similarly, there was a problem in the supply of food and medicine in Manang as well. The Dumre-Besisahar-Chame Road Project has now started conducting special studies through landslide experts by appointing consultants.

According to Dumre-Besisahar-Chame Road Project Engineer Achyut Vilas Pant, it is important to find out the causes of the landslide. “Every year landslides occur in various parts of the country. But if we can conduct proper study, we can find long-term solutions on how to build proper infrastructure in such places,” he said.

Panta said that road infrastructure should not be built haphazardly without conducting proper landscape studies.

Although the road project conducts study of small landslides by themselves, consultants are hired in case of a big landslide as the project does not have the capacity to make a study of a huge landslide.

According to Pant, the biggest landslides in this road section have fallen in Koto, Bagarchhap and Sirnatal. Similarly, a landslide has also fallen in Udipur at the Lamjung entrance.

Consultants from New Dimension Engineering Service have been selected to conduct a study on the landslide. According to Sanjeev Pandey, Chief Executive of the New Dimension, a team of experts has been selected to conduct study of the main landslides around Besisahar to Chame.

According to him, landslides have occurred in about a dozen places in that section. Some of them are very large. An expert team including geologists, erosion experts, engineering geologists, water resources experts are conducting study on the causes of landslides.

Chief District Officer of Manang Rabindra Prasad Acharya said since human settlements are already at risk in some places due to landslides it is important to study whether the landslides will affect these settlements in the future. A few years ago, when a landslide occurred in Bagarchhap, the settlement was shifted to Danakyu. “There is a fear that the river will be blocked by landslides. Landslides occur here even in the dry season, which is why studies are needed,” said Acharya.