Dhading, August 18

Many places at Rubivalley Rural Municipality in Dhading are at high risk of landslides due to incessant rainfall.

Human settlements at Simpale, Dukdung, Sortung, Chalese, Kapurgaun, Hemdung and Newer, among other places of the rural municipality are at high risk of landslides.

Landslides could hit the settlements at any time.

The government had placed these settlements in the red zone after the 2015 earthquake.

National Reconstruction Authority had offered five lakh rupees to the locals at Hindung to relocate as the village was at high risk compared to others. The locals did not want to leave their ancestral houses even though the rural municipality had provided them land to construct houses in Borang.

Bagmati Province lawmaker Jagat Simkhada inspected the landslide-hit areas yesterday.

He said almost all the places in Rubivalley Rural Municipality were at high risk of landslides.

Simkhada informed that some of the villages had to shift as soon as possible as there was no guarantee when the villages would be swept away. He said people living in high risk areas had to be shifted to a safer place in coordination with the local level.

Meanwhile, Nepal Redcross Society district branch has distributed 55 tents in Hindung and 45 tents in Kapur villages. Simkhada said as many as 600 households at Sertung and Kapurgaun were also at high risk of landslides.

According to the rural municipality, houses at Simpale and Dakdung were also at high risk of landslides. Archaeologists had recommended shifting the villages as these places were at high risk of landslides after the earthquake.

Mimba Tamang, member of Nepal Red-cross Society, Dhading, said people were putting their lives at risk.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 19, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.