One year later, the displaced people moved from tents to temporary houses

SINDHUPALCHOWK: AUGUST 9 – Sindhupalchowk district is at high risk of natural calamities like floods and lightning. Although there is a huge loss of life and property every year due to such disasters, the relief and rescue work here is very slow. Out of 209 families displaced by the landslide in Sindhupalchowk, where 39 people lost their lives in the same landslide, 31 families have got temporary houses after one year. The Nepal Army has constructed the houses with the help of various individuals and organizations.

A landslide had buried 34 houses in Lidi, Jugal Rural Municipality-2 of Sindhupalchowk on 14 August 2020. Two hundred and nine houses have been displaced due to the landslide in the village itself and are living in Banskharka, Ward No. 1 of Jugal. In the first phase, temporary housing has been provided to 31 families who have been living miserable life for the past year.

For the first time, cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, under the coordination of Sindhupalchowk Chief District Officer Arun Pokhrel, provided iron poles for the construction of temporary housing in Banskharka. After that, various organizations including the Indus Tourism Council handed over the necessary materials. All the families displaced in Lidi are still living in Banskharka.

Even though they all have the same housing problem, even the locals are happy that the most affected people have been given shelter in the first phase. Nismai Tamang, 71, who lost seven members of her family in the landslide, said she was happy to be able to move from the tent to the temporary houses. The victims are now demanding that they be provided with temporary accommodation as soon as possible.

The data of all those displaced in the landslide has been collected and sent to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. Beneficiaries from the department will get Rs. 50,000 for construction of temporary housing and Rs. 5 million for construction of permanent housing. Pratap Lama, Ward Chairman of Jugal-2, said that the government has requested the landslide victims to manage the land as they could not live in the same place.

Landslide victims have received temporary shelter, albeit belatedly. But it is irresponsible for the local level, which can manage temporary housing in the short time of a landslide, to spend a year sharing donations of Tarpaulin (Tripal) and rice. It is now the responsibility of the local level to help the remaining families move to safer temporary housing and build permanent housing.

It took one year to complete the work within a month immediately after the construction of the temporary tent. How long it will take to build a permanent home can be estimated from this work. One year after the landslide, the local government has not yet been able to plan where and how to build permanent housing. The local government, which has the authority to teach about its jurisdiction in other matters, has failed to manage the victims.

If the work could have been done faster by coordinating between the state and federal governments, the victims would have got permanent housing before today. But the leaders of the parties representing the local government and the district have reached the temporary houses from the tent one year after the landslide due to lack of proper attention.