Dhangadhi, July 27:

Locals of some villages of Dhansinghpur VDC in Kailali district are forced to spend sleepless nights fearing floods in Karnali and Mohana rivers.

Ward no. 9 of Dhansinghpur VDC has been deserted after floods in Karnali and Mohana rivers swept it away seven years ago. The rivers have now eroded half the area of Ward No. 1 of the VDC.

“We have been repeatedly demanding the authorities concerned to build embankments in the rivers. But they are not heeding to our demands,” villager Jhapat Bahadur Buda said. He said that people of Sri Lanka Tapu and Baidi in Ward No 1 were spending sleepless night fearing floods in the rivers.

“We keep even our children awake throughout the night as we don’t know when the rivers will sweep us away,” Hirasingh Tamata, a local of Sri Lanka in Ward No 1, said.

He also demanded the government to shift them to a safer place if it could not control the erosion of land by floods.

Ward No 1, that was once the largest populated ward of Dhansinghpur VDC, is now the least populated ward in the VDC.

Flooding in the Karnali River eroded 20 bighas of arable land last year. This year, it is destroying sugarcane plantation in wards 1, 2, 6, 8 and 9.

Secretary of Dhansinghpur VDC Gagan Singh Thakulla said that the VDC was planning to construct embankments in ward no 1, 2, 6 and 8 by managing funds. “We have demanded the government for more fund as local fund alone would not be sufficient for the construction of embankments,” Thakulla added. Like in previous years, people of five VDCs in eastern parts of Kailali district are fearing that floods will ruin their lives.