Inundation threat looms in Dhangadi

DHANGADI, July 7

Dhangadi of Kailali has suffered because of inundation every monsoon due to lack of proper drainage management.

Many adjoining settlements get submerged due to lack of drainage in the backdrop of unmanaged urbanisation in the region.

There are 14 wards in Dhangadi municipality, many of them do not have drainage and where drainage has been constructed they have not been well managed, complained locals.

Wards 2, 3, 8 and 9 of the municipality get inundated every year during monsoon. “There are houses on all sides. Hence, there appears to be no solution to the problem of water logging. But no authority has taken any initiative so far,” said Sanu Saud, a local.

“All the urban settlements have road access but they lack drainage. As a result, almost all the houses are subject to water logging,” said another local Dal Bahadur Raut.

Jugeda, Bishalnagar, Taranagar, Bhansar Road, Campus Road, among other areas get inundated every year. Though the municipality has started to construct drainage in some places, the work has not been completed due to negligence on the part of the authority.

Ram Lal Shrestha, Dhangadi municipality executive officer, admitted that they had not been able to manage drainage in the area. “As many of the settlements get inundated during monsoon, we have been on high alert and have managed equipment, including excavator,” said Shrestha.

He also said that they had not been able to manage the drainage in the municipality due to budget crunch.

“We need millions of rupees, but we don’t have the budget. So, we are helpless,” he said.

Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank is set to launch urban infrastructure development programme in Dhangadi, Attariya, Jhalari and Bhimdatta municipalities of the far-western region from next year.