Narainapur rural municipality gets flooded due to embankments built by India

Kathmandu - Narainapur rural municipality in Banke district has suffered flooding every year as a result of embankments built by India. The embankments expanding from Katakuiya to the western site constructed in the no man's land on the border by India unilaterally have blocked the water flow flowing from south to north, flooding the settlements downstream in the Nepali side.

The villages that have been suffering flooding are Holiya, Betahani-2, Bankati-3, Kamdi-4 and 5, Hiraminiya-6, Rapti Sonari-7, Phatepur-6, Padanaha Narainapur-5, Bhagawanpur Dondra, Bhojpabhagawanpur, Mahateniya-6, Son Barsha and Gangapur. "We are living in fear when monsoon starts. Our life is at stake due to flooding.

My house rooms are flooded when it rains," said Sabira Sikhani, 70, of Narainapur rural municipality-1. People have rushed to the roof of the house in a bid to escape flooding, said Mohammad Istiyak Ahamad Shah, chair of the rural municipality, adding that more than 100 houses in the villages have been flooded as a result of the embankments. More than 4,000 bighas of fertile lands have been barren due to Laxmanpur and Kalakalawa embankments, said Raj Kumar Shukla, officiating chair of the Laxmanpur embankment victim struggle committee. "The government does not take up the matter with India. Nor there has been international diplomatic initiatives in this regard. We have been raising concerns about the matter. But our concerns have yet to be heard," he said.