Bagmati flood menace in Rautahat ends

Rautahat, May 28

Construction of a water channel in the Bagmati River has all but finished, with people living on the river front in Badaharwa village in Durga Bhagawati Rural Municipality, Rautahat, feeling relieved that they won’t have to worry about floods this year.

Every year, floods from the river wreak havoc in the village, besides half-a-dozen villages on the other side of the river in Sarlahi district during monsoon. Though millions of rupees was spent to save Badharwa from floods every year in the past, it hadn’t paid off well.

Work to build the water channel to control water flow in the river had started about one-and-a-half months ago after a team of the district disaster management committee visited the village and suggested that the rural municipality take steps to resolve the problem.

“Started at the initiative of the rural municipality following the DDMC’s suggestion, the project has reached its final phase now,” said Construction Entrepreneurs’ Association Rautahat former chairperson and Sah Construction Service owner Nagendra Sah.

Durga Bhagawati Rural Municipality has spent around 15 million rupees for the channel project.

“As this was a problem of immediate concern, we had to prioritise it. We have dug a channel along the middle of the river bed and managed to control the water flow, which hopefully will prevent flooding this year,” said the rural municipality Chair Arun Kumar Sah.

Rajesh Thakur, a local of Badaharwa, was relieved that he wouldn’t have to worry about floods this year. “Earlier, we couldn’t sleep at night for fear of being swept away. Now that construction of the water channel is about to finish, I hope we won’t have to face flooding now,” he said.

“This is a good initiative, but we need more so that the problem of flooding is solved for good,” he said.