RAJBIRAJ, AUGUST 20

The rain-fuelled Koshi River has inundated most of the houses in Gobargadha settlement in Saptari's Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality.

Over three dozen houses have been inundated in the settlement surrounded by the Koshi River after overnight rainfall yesterday.

According to Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality-13 ward Chair Bindeshwor Yadav, four houses have collapsed from the inundation.

'Over two feet of water has accumulated in the settlement, and people are living a difficult life in the waterlogged settlement,' Yadav said. After the rainfall started, water flow in the Koshi River had reached 188,000 cusec at around 9:00pm.

'As most of the victims have got their houses inundated by the river, they have been kept at a local school located at higher grounds,' said municipality Mayor Shailesh Sah. The river has been encroaching the Gobargadha area increasingly in recent years.

'Gobargadha is always at risk from the Koshi River and plans had been brought to relocate the people to a safer place, but implementation of the plan has been delayed as the locals refused to leave their ancestral place,' said Mayor Sah.

Further, Sah said preparations were on to shift the people at risk to safer places and provide them relief. A version of this article appears in the print on August 21 2021, of The Himalayan Times.