Monsoon Mayhem
NEPAL faced a particularly challenging 2014. In April when the annual season for Everest expeditions began, 16 Sherpa guides perished in an avalanche. In October, at the start of the trekking season, nearly 30 foreign trekkers and their local guides died in an unexpected blizzard in the Annapurna mountain range. This tragedy came on the heels of the country’s worst monsoon in 50 years.
Massive landslide in the Eastern Region – Sindupulchowk
Widespread flooding in the Far West Region – Nepalgunj
In August 2014, 3 days and nights of continuous rains triggered a huge landslide that blocked a river. This caused the water level to rise and when the river finally broke through, it became a formidable force that brought massive flooding and damage to many communities downstream.
Ground zero at Sakathani where the landslide occurred
We went to the Far West and visited ground zero at Sakathani where the landslide occurred. In that area alone, 21 houses were destroyed and huge strips of arable land were either washed away or filled with rocks and sand. Numerous farmers lost houses, land and entire crop harvests for the year. Thankfully, there weren’t many deaths but over 1,000 families are now living in 34 relief camps. We visited 4 of these camps where some our community partners and their families have been taking shelter since September. They are currently waiting for the government to allocate land for their relocation. In the meantime, government officials and local communities are doing a commendable job in providing daily relief for survivors living in these makeshift camps.
Relief camps – makeshift home to about 1,000 families who have lost both land and houses
Bardiya – the village where we helped to build 20 toilets in 2012, is one community badly affected by flood waters. Waters flooded the entire area for about a day and many old houses built with mud bricks and mortar literally dissolved underwater. This made the walls unstable and sections of the house collapsed.
Houses were soaked in 1.3 metre high flood waters for about a day, dissolving the mud plaster and brick mortar
Many houses are structurally unsound and unsafe to live in now
Although their mud houses are destroyed, the people are salvaging whatever they can
Because our toilets are constructed out of brick and cement mortar, it survived the flood waters! Read more about it in “New Beginnings in the Terai”
We hope to raise 400,000 SGD to rebuild 200 houses for affected families. The budget to build a single storey brick house with two rooms is 2,000 SGD. To date we have collected 125,000 SGD. In Bardiya, we have obtained official permission from the municipality to rebuild 62 houses for needy households and work has begun.
A simple start-work briefing was conducted on 12 January ’15 in Bardiya
Start work on house #1 of 62
If you would like to contribute to our rebuilding efforts, please go to our Get Involved page.