DANG, Feb 5: “The floods eroded all our land. My house still stands, but for how long?” asked Rajbaji Chaudhary of Kanchi village, Gadawa Rural Municipality of Dang district.
People like her have been living under the fear of floods in the Rapti River for the past five decades.
Fed up with the loss of life and property due to floods every year, they have demanded the construction of embankments to minimize the flood risks. “Many a days, we were forced to sleep on empty stomachs as floods washed away our necessities.
How long do we have to live at such risk? When will we get rid of such risks?” asked Chaudhary.
Kanchi village is in the highly risky zone of Rapti floods. The village is squeezed between Rapti floods and land erosion. Due to this, they have been continuously looking for solution in the form of embankment construction.
People living near Rapti demand protection against floods
However, their voices have not reached the government. “We suffer every year. But the state is unconcerned about our problem. They have not bothered to take steps to control the floods,” he added.
About 100 settlements of Gadawa and Rajpur rural municipalities and even Lamai Municipality are in areas prone to floods. The risk has increased further due to dozens of crushers extracting sand from the river.
However, the people have been unable to stop such illegal mining.
Shahaj Ram Yadav, chief of Gadawa Rural Municipality, said embankments should be built at places where they are necessary.
“The stakeholders concerned must take notice of the issue and work accordingly for solution,” he said.
