The Rapti River, which flows through the Deukhuri village of Dang, has swept hundreds of villagers to death so far. It has also eroded thousands of hectares of fertile farmland, making poor farmers even poorer.
Nepalgunj: Rampati Chaudhary, now 73, has lived all her life in fear of monsoon floods.
She first witnessed the havoc wrecked by a monsoon flood way back in 1961 when she was growing up on the Rapti river bank.
“The river swelled up and washed away our entire village,” she recalled. “When the flood receded, all our belongings were buried under a thick blanket of sand.”
That was not the only time her family was displaced by the Rapti river flood. “The flood troubled me all my life, and I am not sure whether the house where I am currently living will survive the next monsoon,” she said.
When Rampati shared her story during an interaction – Paani Chhalfal – held by Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) under the USAID-supported Paani Program in Gadhawa village of Dang, the audience was so silent that one could almost hear a pin drop. Her story moved every one.
She added: “We live in fear every monsoon. We spend many monsoon nights crying and hugging each other. If an embankment is not built to control the Rapti River, the flood could wash away everything that we have.”
The Rapti River has been constantly changing its course, flooding human settlements built on its banks. And Rampati is just one of many villagers displaced by the flood.
Dan Bahadur Chaudhary once owned more than two bighas of fertile land in Gadhawa. He still has the land ownership certificate, but his land is fully covered with sand, gravel and pebbles brought by the flood. No plant grows there. He is now virtually landless despite legally owning a huge chunk of land.
Dan Bahadur now has to buy rice grains, cereal crops, vegetable and everything else. He has rebuilt a house on whatever land was left by the flood, but the Rapti River threatens to sweep it away in every monsoon season. “If this river is not controlled, my family could be gone in any monsoon season,” he says.
The Rapti River, which flows through the Deukhuri village of Dang, has swept hundreds of villagers to death so far. It has also eroded thousands of hectares of fertile farmland, making poor farmers even poorer.
The government has unveiled several programs to control the Rapti River. Several embankments have been built under the people’s embankment program. Flood control programs have been incorporated into a Rs. 820 million irrigation project is operational. Badkapath irrigation project, which is even bigger in terms of scale and budget, also aims to contain the flood.
However, the villagers living on the Rapti river bank have not felt a great relief. There needs to be greater efforts to save people from monsoon floods. During the Paani Chhalfal, the locally-elected representatives of people promised to introduce their own programs to contain the Rapti river floods.
The interaction was attended by village chiefs and deputy chiefs of Gadhawa, Rapti, Rajpur village councils and mayor and deputy mayor of Lamahi municipality.
Jitendra Man Shrestha, Chief of the District Coordination Committee of Dang, also promised to introduce sustainable efforts to control floods. Shrestha vowed to crack down on illegal crusher plants operating in the Rapti River, and stressed the need to spend the revenue generated by the river in controlling monsoon floods.
The program was attended by more than 80 people, and all the participants unanimously endorsed various plans to control the Rapti floods. The government officials promised to support and implement the plans endorsed by the meeting.
