He started to live in the rented room along with other flood victims at Moiti village in the district headquarters itself. However, unable to afford the costly rent at Moiti, Magar recently returned to his earlier house. However, he is still not at ease for the house is by the river, which can breach its banks anytime. [break]
Dev Bahadur Giri, of Harjung-7 in Rolpa, who is also living with Magar at Galfai in Khalaga, said that he had not taken a sound sleep for over a week.
“We pray to God before we go to bed. When we wake up at night we rush to check the water level in the river,” says Giri.
Many flood victims like them sleep by turn to keep vigil.
According to the locals, though the situation improved a bit as the water level is receding in the Mahakali and the sky is not too overcast during the day time, it still rains over night. This is enough to disturb these folks who are yet to come to terms with the recent disaster.
“The fear of flood always haunts us. We have been spending sleepless nights for weeks now,” says Lalita Pun, who along with his husband and their three children had shifted to Galfai a week ago from relatively safer place where they could not afford the rent. “We could not afford 1500 rupees monthly rent so we had to return here,” says she, who has been paying room rent Rs 500 a month at Galfai.
Bir Bahadur Pun, who has been living at house of Jagat Dhami at Galfai, wants to shift from there but have not found any room in safer places.
“I have been looking for a room over a month now, but to no avail. The fear of flood always lurks in my mind,” says Bir Bahadur.
Dhami, his landlord, says that he was staying put in his house, hoping that his tenants would help in case of fresh flooding.
The life in the district headquarters is nonetheless limping back to normalcy.
Only last month, no one was willing to live in the house close to the river. However, as the water level in the river is receding, people have started to return to their old refuge. Some have even resumed their business while others have started a new one.
“How long can a person stay idle in the room? So, I have started a tea stall to support my family,” Daulat Singh Daga, who along with six members of his family was rendered homeless in the flood, told Republica.
The mid -June flood in Mahakali river had swept away 139 houses in Khalanga. Over 250 houses are still at risk.
Related story
Living with fear
