Dolakha, July 29

Incessant rainfall followed by frequent landslides and floods have badly affected the normal life of the earthquake victims in Dolakha of late.

Due to continuous rainfall, earthquake victims are compelled to live in a fearful environment.

A local Dambar Kumari Shrestha of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality said her children began to fall sick after her temporary hut with zinc sheet roof started leaking because of heavy rain.

“The kids have been suffering from common cold, fever, cough and diarrhea,” she added. Shrestha said that she had sleepless night when it rained heavily.

Similarly, the family members of seven houses at Lapilang in Kalinchowk Rural Municipality, Dolakha said they could not sleep fearing landslides.

A 47-year-old Krishna Bahadur Basnet of the rural municipality said, “We have been badly traumatised by the fear of landslide and we never know when our houses will be swept away by landslide.”

Many quake victims in Dolakha are compelled to leave their houses and move to a safer place due to heavy downpour. Locals said the they could not build quake-resilient houses due to lack of appropriate land. They also accused the government of being indifferent to their plight.

The government has done nothing to shift the victims’ to a safer place even two years after the devastating earthquake.

Dil Bahadur Thapa of Kalinchowk Rural Municipality said his family had been staying in a rented house in the district headquarters as he could not get an appropriate land to construct a house and he could not afford to buy land in the municipality.

Similar is the plight of earthquake victims in Bhimeshwor Municipality of the district. They are also at high risk of floods and landslides. After the earthquake of 2015, as many as 150 settlements in Dolakha are at a high risk of landslides.