Nepalgunj, August 29, 2006

Fifteen thousand residents of Banke and over 10,000 locals of Bardiya have been stranded in villages with no food as Rapti and Babai rivers wreaked havoc.

Flood victims say they are starving as the rivers swept everything away, including their houses and foodstuff. Most haven’t had a meal or even water for the past three days. Others are being compelled to drink dirty water.

At least 12 villages, including Chitaipurwa, Simarhana, Piprahawa, Chaupheri, Tepari and Khadaincha of Holiya and Betahani VDCs of Banke have been submerged completely in Rapti deluge.

Though home minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula went to flood affected areas to distribute water, beaten rice and shakkhar by helicopter today, not even 20 per cent of the victims got food materials.

Up to 400 victims, who were rescued from Simrana in Holiya and taken to Jhora forests yesterday, have been compelled to stay in open with nothing to eat.

In 13 VDCs of Gulariya municipality in Bardiya, 10,000 locals have become homeless due to flooded Babai. The victims have been put up in 17 temporary camps at Karmachari Milan Kendra, local Banglamukhi School and other places, District Administration Office said.

Residents of Mohammadpur, Balapur, Jaynagar, Suryapatuwa and Kalika are the most affected.

Water level in Rapti River receded significantly today after India opened additional gates of Laxmanpur Barrage after talks with the Nepali team led by Administrative Officer of Banke, Rajendra Adhikari.

Adhikari said Indian SSB had made arrangements of food and lodging for over 500 flood victims.

Irregularities galore in Melamchi project

The $500-million Melamchi project, launched with the objective of bringing 170 million litres of water per day to the capital from Melamchi, is mired in irregularities, states a report presented by the Melamchi Water Supply Development Employees’ Union (MWSDEU).

The government-run drinking water project should be restructured to end irregularities and discrimination against staffers, the report states. “We want the entire project restructured.

The project has become an infamous example of misappropriation of budget,” Khibaraj Sharma, the MWSDEU chairman, told this daily today.

We are holding meetings with the project management on different issues, which we had raised some days ago, Sharma said. “While a select few officials draw unimaginably high salaries, others are discriminated against in pay scale and their jobs are not guaranteed.”

According to a document, each of over 24 consultants draws over Rs 100,000 as monthly salary.

Numerous experts are being hired for no reason.

Millions of rupees were paid to contractors time and again in the name of bill claim and variation, the report states.