Flood, landslide death toll reaches 111; 35 missing

Kathmandu, August 15

At least 111 people have died and 35 are missing in the floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall across the country.

Addressing the Parliament today, Minister for Home Affairs Janardan Sharma said Morang, Sunsari, Siraha, Rautahat, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sindhuli, Bara, Parsa, Dang, Banke and  Bardiya were among the worst-hit districts.

“Hundreds of families have been displaced, as over 80 per cent land of the Tarai has been inundated,” said Sharma. He said local administrations and security agencies had been encountering problems in disposing bodies and making makeshift shelters, as most areas were waterlogged.

According to Sharma, the government is doing its best to provide relief to the displaced families and using helicopters to rescue marooned people.

He said local administrations of the respective districts had already started providing relief amount to victims.

According to Sharma, the government has started providing Rs 200,000 to families of each deceased and Rs 10,000 for maintenance of houses damaged by floods.

He claimed that the government had deployed sufficient number of doctors and health workers, along with medicines, in the affected areas to prevent outbreak of epidemic and had started collecting data of damaged houses.

Meanwhile, most lawmakers speaking in Parliament today asked the government to speed up rescue and relief work. They also drew the government’s attention towards pathetic condition of flood and landslide victims.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Mahesh Acharya said the government should cut down all its unproductive expenditures to provide relief to flood victims.

CPN-Maoist Centre’s lawmaker Rekha Sharma said the Parliament should act in a unified manner as it did in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes.