The 2077 landslide swept away 126 houses. 22 people died. 17 are still missing. The monsoon has arrived again, and permanent housing arrangements for the displaced have not yet been made.
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While COVID was causing problems, a landslide occurred in Bhujikhola on Bhadra 17, 2077, damaging wards 7, 8 and 9 of Dhorpatan Municipality. The landslide swept away 126 houses. The flood killed 22 people living on the banks of Bhujikhola. 17 people are still missing.
After the landslide, those who took the first advance to build private houses did not get the additional installment because they built houses in rural areas without meeting the standards. They are still unaware of the state's services. There are many who do not even come to collect the expenses provided by the state to build houses. The road to this landslide has not even been built yet. The landslide swept away about 10 km of road in sections of Ward No. 8 and 9. The work of repairing this road was finally completed in last Jestha. The under-construction Dhorpatan Saljhandi Road Project has also delayed work here.
Even now, if the river level rises, there is a risk of reaching the road track. ‘After the landslide, the river flowed from the road, but it has not been made safe yet,’ said Yam Bahadur Kayat, Principal of Gyanodaya Secondary School, ‘There is a neglect in the work of building a well-organized road.’
Senior Soil Conservation Officer Sher Bahadur Shrestha says that there is a high possibility of floods and landslides in Bhujikhola next year as well. He suggests that settlements should not be built 100 meters to the right and left of Bhujikhola.
Last year, 11 people lost their lives in a single day in Badigad Rural Municipality Wards 9 and 10. The victims have not yet been reconstructed. Those who took shelter during the disaster have not been able to build their own houses and now the rainy season has come again. On the one hand, there is a possibility of further problems in the old damage, while the unorganized road also poses a risk of creating more floods and landslides at any place.
No plan has been made yet to resettle the victims of the aforementioned incident. When Tamankhola Rural Municipality tried to come up with a plan to build an integrated settlement, it was against federal law. Chairman Joklal Budha said that it was difficult to build a settlement because it was against the Forest Act. He argued that developing an integrated settlement would be cheaper than building roads in scattered settlements.
‘We could not explain in what place we would farm, in what place we would build houses and live,’ said Amar Thapa, head of the District Coordination Committee. ‘The local government should now be strict about it.’ He suggested that the construction of houses along rivers, reservoirs and roads should be stopped. The landslide in Dhorpatan is an example of that.
The District Disaster Management Committee has concluded that more damage has been caused by unseasonal floods and landslides due to climate change in recent times. "Most of the damage is caused by human activities, and if the roads dug haphazardly cannot be managed, the risk increases due to the change in the flow of streams and rivers," said committee chairman and Praja District Officer Krishna Prasad Acharya. "The damage is increasing due to unorganized settlements." He said that the municipality has been asked to deploy technicians to prepare a safety plan while preparing the road and infrastructure plan for Karadau.
Nepal Red Cross Society Baglung President Jagannath Acharya says, "We look for solutions only after a disaster occurs, which is not good." He said that the cost of post-disaster rescue is hundreds of times higher than the cost of the plan prepared before the disaster.
According to Baglung's statistics, 16 people lost their lives in floods and landslides last fiscal year. 14 people were injured. According to the District Administration Office's statistics, 196.7 million rupees were distributed as relief to the victims of 47 incidents last year alone.
According to a study, Nepal is ranked 20th in the world in terms of the number of natural disasters. Experts have pointed out that the first reason for this is human error. If we look at the data of the last 30 years, the same situation is visible. In the last 30 years, floods, landslides and natural disasters have increased by 13 percent compared to the average.
The damage caused by the increased disasters is seen to be two-thirds greater. According to the data of the National Disaster Management Center, there was a 48 percent increase in the damage caused by disasters in 2021. Every year, 300 Nepalis lose their lives in disasters in Nepal.
