Prakash Singtan has been homeless after the flooded Bagmati river swept away his house and farmland in ward 4 of Chanaute of Khanikhola Rural Municipality on September 29 last year. He has nowhere to go and no land left to build a house on. The four-member Singtan family has been languishing under a flimsy tarpaulin tent set up on the land temporarily provided by a villager.

“It was around 4am. It had been raining heavily. We somehow crossed the river with our children. The floods washed away our house and all the farmland,” Prakash recalled the disaster. The Singtan family had been living on the Bagmati riverbank for years, but nature's fury made them homeless, landless.

“The house and all my land were swept away. We have no land left to rebuild. And we don’t have money to buy land elsewhere and build shelters. A villager offered us land to pitch the tarpaulin tent provided by the rural municipality,” said Prakash. His family has been living in the tarpaulin tent for over four months since the disaster.

Prakash is growing increasingly anxious about his family’s future. He does not know how much longer they will have to languish under the tent. “The people’s representatives visited our shelter. The local unit has provided us with a tarpaulin tent, food and clothes. They assured us that efforts are on for our resettlement,” said Prakash, wondering whether his family will have their own house again.

Kanchhi Maya Tamang, another displaced person in the area, has a tough time protecting her elderly mother-in-law and one-year-old daughter from the bone-chilling winter cold. “It is very difficult to spend the night under the tent. It is freezing cold at night as dew leaks from the roof. Elderly people and the children are hugely affected by the cold that the tents cannot keep out,” said Kanchhi Maya.

Prakash, Kanchhi Maya and many other displaced families like them are worried about yet another looming problem—the approaching rainy season. “The winter is about to be over in a few days. The place where we have been living is prone to landslides. What will happen to us if we cannot move to a safer location before the monsoon season?” lamented Prakash.

The families of Prakash, Kanchhi Maya and five other displaced people have been languishing under tents near the bank of Bagmati river in Chanaute area. The impoverished families expressed their frustration over what they perceive as government’s indifference to their plight and resettlement.

Indra Bahadur Thing, chairman of Khanikhola Rural Municipality, said that efforts are on to move the displaced families to safer locations. He, however, claimed that the federal government has not taken the issue of the displaced families seriously.

“The local government provided temporary shelter, food and clothes. Now, the federal government should come up with a plan for their resettlement. The displaced families in Chanaute haven't even received Rs50,000 that the government decided to provide the victims to set up temporary shelter,” said Thing.

According to Thing, the local government has no authority over the relocation of the displaced families. He said a total of 50 houses were destroyed by the September disaster.

According to Chief District Officer Umesh Kumar Dhakal, who is also the coordinator of the district disaster management committee, the government has provided Rs15,000 to 20,000 to manage daily expenses and another Rs50,000 for temporary shelter to each displaced family.

“There may have been delays in sending money to some local units due to technical problems. We have urged the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority and the Urban Development and Building Office to relocate the displaced families from disaster-prone areas,” said Dhakal.

The rain-induced disasters wreaked havoc in several districts across the country in the last week of September. The Bagmati and Koshi provinces were hit the hardest by the floods and landslides. Kavre, a hill district of Bagmati Province, was severely battered by the floods and landslides. A total of 78 people were killed in the district alone while rain-induced disasters ruined various infrastructures including houses, roads, community building, drinking water projects and utility poles.

The government has declared dozens of local units in 14 most affected districts as ‘disaster crisis zones’ with the objective of expediting rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction efforts. However, the relief and rehabilitation works have not been carried out effectively, leaving hundreds of displaced families to fend for themselves.