The onset of raining season has left locals of Armala VDC with sleepless nights as fresh sinkholes have appeared again.
At least 10 new sinkholes have appeared at Jogimani settlement in the village in the past two days. While the villagers have filled seven of them with soil, some of them are preparing to leave the settlement.
More than 200 such sinkholes have appeared in and around Armala since the first one was reported in November last year, according to the Natural Disaster Concerned and Construction Support Committee (NDCCSC).
“I cannot sleep a wink when it starts raining. We have nowhere to go,” Bishnu Bhattarai, a local, said with a lump forming in her throat. Bhim Bahadur Karki, another local who recently left the village, added: “I could not stay here any more as my house is surrounded by sinkholes.”
The villagers criticise the concerned authorities for not taking initiative to control the natural disaster.
The sinkholes had damaged the high tension line, telephone tower and one kilometre road last year. VDC officials said 109 houses in the settlement are at high risk and the sinkholes have already displaced 89 families.
It is suspected that the problem has recurred as the villagers started planting paddy. “The number of sinkholes has increased after locals started planting paddy. We had earlier asked them to keep the area dry,” said Prakash Bhattarai, a member of the NDCCSC.
Earlier, Krishna KC, a geographer at the Prithivi Narayan Multiple Campus in Pokhara, said that the settlement was built in the area where a rivulet used to run in the past. The floods that occurred in the Seti river deposited huge amounts of boulders, silts and sands underneath where Armala VDC is located.
According to KC, the increase in development activities including building construction led to the loosening of the surface underneath, mainly constituting thick deposits of calcareous soil (calcium carbonate). The seepage of surface and rain water has only compounded the situation, he explained.
“The beginning of monsoon has increased the risk,” said Liladhar Acharya, chairman of the NDCCSC. The villagers said they would not cultivate their land if they are provided with relief and compensation. They demanded that the government should relocate them to a safer place.
VDC secretary Rajendra Acharya said the NDRC had released Rs 1.5 million to control the problem and that preparations are under way to release additional Rs 2 million from the Prime Minister’s relief fund.
The government probe panel formed last year said that human-led activities like river encroachment and illegal stone and sand mining were among the reasons that caused the sinkholes.
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