DIPAYAL: For locals of Barpata village in Doti district, monsoon comes every year just to terrorise them.

Embankments by the Seti River are being eroded every year and locals fear that the flooded River might enter their settlement and inundate their precious houses.

In previous year, hundreds of hectares of cultivated land were eroded by the floods.

This year, not only the Seti River, but the two streams nearby the village have also increased the fear of inundation.

According to local Shankar Rokaya, they cannot sleep well as they do not know when the landslides will bury them or the flood sweeps them away.

Rokaya further claimed that the village is under the grip of floods and landslides so the only alternative for the safety is to relocate them in new places. "But who will hear our problems?" wondered the local.

Likewise, neighbouring Simar village also has the same condition.

Local Padam Bista informed that the fear gets worse whenever it rains.

According to Min Bahadur Balayar, the Chairman of Sidheshwor Higher Secondary School Management Committee in Banedugrisain, Banleg-3, studies at the school used to be hampered every year as the school used to be closed for certain days after the incessant rainfall increases possibilities of floods.

Karna Balayar, another local, informed that people used to run here and there in search of safety after the flood flowed towards human settlements.

Dozens of settlements nearby the Seti River including Girichauka, Banleg, Barpata, Latamandau, Pachnali, Pachnala, Lamikhal, Ladagada and Tikhatar VDCs and Dipayal Silgadi Municipality are at a higher risk of landslides.

Locals blame previous works done to fix the embankments were not effective.

Chief of the Dipayal-based Water-Induced Disaster Prevention Division Office, Ram Chandra Awasthi, however, blamed local consumer committees for ineffective embankment construction.

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