Okhaldhunga, July 14

Scores of settlement are at high risk of landslides due to incessant rainfall since yesterday morning in Okhaldhunga district.

At least 18 households, 14 of Sunkoshi Rural Municiplaity-9, Kakani and four of Likhu Rural Municipality -8, Tarkerabari, are at high risk of landslides caused by incessant rainfall for the past two days. A house was buried while three others were badly damaged in a landslide at Tarkerabari of Likhu -9.

A total of 14 families at Kakani of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality are at risk of flooding after a landslide at Jorayaldanda hill blocked Baishakhe stream. “The stream has eroded hundreds of ropani of cultivable land and landslide near the settlement has posed a great risk to the houses here,” regretted Karna Bahadur Tamang, a local.

According to him, huts, sheds and latrine of some of the locals were swept away by the flooded stream. The locals claimed that landslides occurred due to negligence in the construction of Nawalpurghat-Dudhkunda road.

“The settlement is at risk of landslides due to the haphazard construction of a rural road uphill,” regretted Sunkoshi Rural Municipality ward 10 Chair Tula Ram Parajuli. He added that the stream gushed into the settlement as it was blocked by the landslide debris.

“We want to be taken to safer place as a landslide is imminent,” said Ratna Bahadur Tamang. “The locals are terrified although no human casualty has been reported so far,” said Sunkoshi Rural Municipality Chairperson Rudra Prasad Adhikari.

As per Parajuli, the rural municipality dispatched 15 tarpaulins for the landslide victims.

Meanwhile, District Police Office Okhaldhunga Chief DSP Ananta Ram Sharma said that though many places of the district were at the risk of landslides and floods, no human casualty was reported.