Historic Rainfall Causes Major Disruptions in Nepal

Kathmandu saw historic rainfall in the last days  of September. The late  monsoon rain  dumped heavy  torrential rain in Kathmandu, causing a flash flood and inundating some parts of the city. The rivers and its tributaries started to swell swiftly, sweeping away everything on its path. People could not believe how quickly the flood water started to enter their neighborhood and into their homes. When they were not able to run away from the flood, they tried to move to the top floors in their homes, and even on the roof tops. The affected people were terrified for their lives. Many unfortunate ones were swept away by the flood. This horrific event was reported by many news agencies and broadcasted on TV. I had never heard or seen such a destruction brought by rainfall in Kathmandu. Seeing people rescued by helicopters from roof tops, use of inflatable boats and ropes to rescue people to safety from the flooded streets was something I had never imagined happening in Kathmandu.

(Classrooms were impacted by the flood and landslides)

The heavy rain caused several landslides cutting off the valley for several days. Several parts of the country were destroyed by the landslides. Many people lost their homes, their belongings, many people died and many are still missing. In a post published on UN News soon after the disaster, reported  “More than 215 people , including 35 children have been killed and dozens are missing.‘’

(Kalidevi School had serious damage due to landslides)

Such disasters are increasing every year posing threats to many people around the world. Experts believe that such crises are the consequences of Climate Change caused by several factors like deforestation, over urbanization and pollution that destroys the echo system. 

(Classrooms were covered in mud and have had to be cleaned and restored in order to restart classes.)

When I was growing up, I did not know anything about climate change.  In those days, Kathmandu valley was well known to have the most fertile land in the country, producing sufficient food grains and vegetables. The valley was very sparsely populated except the city of Kathmandu. The famous Bagmati, Bishnumati and Manohara rivers used to flow with clean water. Now, the valley is covered with concrete buildings and roads, leaving no room for the rain water to soak in the ground.  With the ever increasing population influx from remote parts of the country in the valley rose the demand for housing. People started making homes very close to the river banks. Due to excessive use of groundwater to fulfill the household needs, rivers started to become dry. Many people who migrated in recent years might  not have seen water in the rivers until the Monsoon downpour of late September 2024. Sadly, many of those affected by the flood are people who migrated to escape poverty and disasters, hoping for better opportunities for their families in the capital city. 

The effect of devastation in our community

The devastation affected many parts of the country outside Kathmandu.  Our communities were also hit hard .People lost their lives, many homes were destroyed, the main road to Kathmandu got destroyed with landslides, communications were lost because of cell phone tower outages for several days. Thankfully, all of our girls survived the disaster, some homes were destroyed, and were living with their neighbors. It was difficult to find a safe place in rain soaked hills, but thankfully, they survived.  Sadly though, rebuilding, repairing and recovering loss after such devastation is very difficult in that part of the world. People don’t have insurance and government help is limited to rescue and immediate relief only.

Some children who were returning from soccer practice at a nearby school lost their lives in a flash flood. It is a tragic situation for people losing their children and their homes before the approaching holiday.

(Some homes in the area were severed damaged and some of our Bahinis have been displaced.)

Many of our partner schools were affected with mudslides entering the schools and damaging educational materials and equipment. We are a small organization working with very limited resources. We did not have any contingency funds, but we couldn’t see our communities in pain and did nothing. So, we decided to slash some of the programs which do not affect our girls directly or postpone them for next year, and support the affected schools in two municipalities  Dakshinkali  and Indra Sarovar for immediate relief and rescue efforts.

Landslides seriously affected the road to Kalika school at Indra Sarovar municipality, making it impossible for students to commute.  Government help was hard to come by as they were overwhelmed with the limited resources they have. Our small help during the difficult time gave some boost to the community, and soon after, local people and teachers worked hard to clean up the mud inside the school building and managed to reopen a road  for the students to be able to walk to school.

Holiday season was supposed to be a joyful time for everyone, but this time turned out to be the opposite. As schools were closed for up to one month, it allowed the community to clean up the mess caused by the devastating floods and landslides.

People tend to forget such events quickly and do not get prepared for the next disaster hoping it will not happen again. We hope we learnt a lesson from the disaster and make contingency plans to survive situations like these in the future.