Aashish Malla has been living on a poultry farm with his family of six for the past three years after their house in Dablyang, Baglung Municipality-10 was swept away by a landslide.

“The landslide swept away 12 houses including ours. The landslide at Dablyang along the Maldhunga-Kushmisera road section erupted three years ago and is only growing bigger and displacing families every year,” said Malla. “The Maldhunga-Kushmisera road section and Kaligandaki corridor have been blocked by landslides countless times since then. The authorities conduct repairs and clear the debris after every landslide, but none of the authorities has come up with a concrete plan to find a permanent solution to the landslide.”

Maldhunga-Kushmisera is the main gateway to Baglung, and connects Parbat, Gulmi, and Palpa districts to the Kaligandaki corridor.

Around 250 to 300 vehicles use this road section on a daily basis.

Following several requests from the locals to mitigate the risk of landslides in the area, the Gandaki Provincial government on May 7 had sent a nine-member team from Explorer Geophysical Consultant Pvt Ltd to study landslides along the 21-kilometre Maldhunga-Kushmisera road section. Maldhunga is in Parbat district and Kushmishera lies in Baglung. The team released a preliminary report after a two-week-long study. One of the steps suggested by the team to the provincial government is to build 10 different types of support structures, including 27 pile foundations, to support the landslide.

According to the preliminary report, building the 10 types of structures would cost the government around Rs55 million. But with every landslide, the cost is estimated to rise. Once the structures are built and the threat of landslides goes away, the road section is expected to accommodate more than 5oo vehicles per day with ease.

According to Umesh Chandra Bhusal, a member of the study team, apart from the 10 types of support structures, the management of water sources in the road section must be prioritised. “Construction of drains and concrete support walls must be done to manage the water sources. Management of water sources must be prioritised, but it’s a difficult endeavour requiring a huge investment.”

Meanwhile, Baglung Municipality and Jaimini Municipality have already taken steps towards managing water sources to make way for the construction of physical structures to help mitigate landslide threats in the area.

According to Basant Kumar Shrestha, mayor of Baglung Municipality, they are prepared to start the first phase of water resource management by constructing drains.

Shrestha believes diverting the water away from the landslide area will prevent road blockages during the rainy season. “People using this road are always at risk of getting hit by a landslide or getting stuck in traffic due to road blockages. There have been instances where even ambulances have had to wait for 10-12 hours in traffic due to road blockages caused by landslides,” said Shrestha. “Even light rainfall causes a big landslide here. The risk of entire settlements and road stretches being swept away by landslides is growing every year in this area.”

Both municipalities and provincial assembly members have asked the Gandaki province government to allocate funds for landslide mitigation measures on the Maldhunga-Kushmisera road section.

“It is a strategic road. It came into operation in the fiscal year 2019-2020. The road construction cost Rs850 million. If landslides are not controlled on time, the road will be completely useless,” said Dilliram Subedi, a member of the provincial assembly of Gandaki Province.