Five members of Puran´s family including his father Dambar Bahadur and mother were killed by landslide in Gorkhakot, Mastamandu-1 on October 6 while he and his sister survived by sheltering in a drum. Similarly, 13-year-old Dil Bahadur, who happened to be away at his mother´s parental home, was the only survivor of Bijay Bhul´s family in the landslide that killed seven other members.
Dil Bahadur´s neighbors are having similar difficulty consoling him. "Dil Bahadur has been asking about his parents ever since he returned here, and he leaves us speechless," says Baldev Sarki, a local.
There has been sporadic talk about help for the striken children but immediate relatives have maintained that they will not allow them to be taken outside the district. "After losing five members of my family including my son and daughter-in-law, I wish that my remaining grandchildren will be around," says Puran´s grandmother, urging those who want to help to ensure that the children are kept locally.
Building a new home: an annual ordeal
KAILALI, Oct 12: Building a home has become part of Dharma Singh Kumal´s annual calendar in recent years. He puts up a new house in a new location every year after his existing house is swept away by flooding, and he hopes the new site will not be flooded also.
But tragedy strikes again the very next year and he has been forced to shift his house to five different places. The recent flooding has ensured that he will have to repeat the exercise for the sixth year. "This year also the whole house was inundated and I had to flee for my life. This would not have happened had I found land on high ground, but I don´t have any such land," rues Kumal of Bhajani-9.
Hundreds more in different Village Development Committees (VDC) of the district have to go through the same ordeal every year. These families have not built solid structures because of the annual disaster and live in thatched huts supported by tree trunks. They uproot the trunk and fix it at a new place after the hut is swept by flood.
Having suffered the same fate every year, they have a singular dream of one day getting a plot of land on an elevated site. "Our house and land are swept by flood every year. We can´t even sleep during the nights from June to October. The government should provide us a safer place," urges Gidari Chaudhary, 60, of Narayanpur-8.
Locals of VDCs like Lalbojhi, Bhajani, Narayanpur, Dhansinghpur and Thapapur feel that the government does not care about their plight. They would rather that the government provide them a permanent residence instead of spending millions every year in the name of flood relief.
Meanwhile, Nirmal Ghimire reports from Bardiya that district headquarters Gulariya is under threat from the Babai river. A dam recently constructed at a cost of Rs 50 million has been damaged by last week´s flood and the Bhada bridge is also under threat, causing panic among the locals.
Diarrhea death in Nepalgunj
BANKE, Oct 12: One person died of diarrhea in Gausiya Tole of Nepalgunj Municipality Ward No 5 on Sunday in the wake of the recent flooding.
Sabina Behana, 6, died while undergoing treatment at Bheri Zonal Hospital, the hospital said. Sabina´s elder brother Samir is also being treated for diarrhea at the hospital.
According to locals, a dozen more in Ward No. 5 have been affected by the malady. Diarrhea is appearing in several parts of Nepalgunj as well as in other Village Development Committees of Banke district, which was inundated in the past week. Three people in the district died of the disease earlier this year.
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