Man Kumari BK of Kalagaun, who was living at a temporary camp, was forced to seek shelter in a nearby hospital due to strong winds and hailstorms on Monday night. She had to spend the night at the hospital with her seven-month-old infant. Lamenting about their condition, BK said camp life in the winter has become too inhospitable for her and the infant.

Deurupa Nepali, who delivered a baby just 10 days ago, said that besides food shortage, they were also deprived of blankets and carpet rugs to ward off the cold. Similarly, another post-natal woman Sangita Nepali said she too finds it too difficult live in the tents. Saying that they cannot rely on the hospital every day, the women expressed concerns as to what they should do next.

Meanwhile, Single Women’s Group Chairperson Sheetal Singh Rathaur said they are planning to provide accommodation to the women at their office. Rathaur said they were working with other government and non-government agencies to make necessary arrangements to provide food, clothes and accommodation to the women for the next two months.

Rathaur said they had made arrangements to accommodate 35 post-partum women living in camps of the flood-displaced people across the district. She said their office itself was used as shelter for 18 post-partum and pregnant women for a period of one month since mid-August. Rathaur said the office will be accommodating the additional women from Wednesday.

NHRC seeks info on flood victims

BANKE: The Nepalgunj-based office of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has corresponded with local authorities seeking information on the condition of flood victims living in temporary camps. The NHRC sought the information after some flood victims lodged a complaint stating that local administration started a demolition campaign on Friday saying none of the residents living in the community forests were genuine flood victims.

Regional NHRC Director Murari Kharel said they sought information regarding genuine flood victims, their condition and relocation provision.

He said the local authorities should not demolish the structures of genuine flood victims without first relocating them. Meanwhile, Chief District Officer Bed Prakash Lekhak said they have not received any correspondence from the human rights body.

DNDRC distributes food items

KAMAL PANTHI

The District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee (DNDRC) has started distributing food items provided by the United Nations Food Programme to the families victimised by floods this year in the district. A total of 93,189 people of 17,376 flood hit families are entitled to the facility, the DNDRC said.

The food items including pulse, rice, oil and salt have been stored in various places including the buildings of the District Development Committee and the district branch of Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS). Various locations have already been selected for the distribution, said Krishna Prasad Gautam, chairman of NRCS district branch.

He said that food items and cash worth Rs 1 billion have been provided to the flood victims so far. The food items had been distributed in different phases.  The DNDRC said that it has distributed Rs 340 million rupees in cash to the flood victims so far. The DNDRC said that it provided Rs 5,000 in cash to each family whose house was destroyed completely and Rs 3,000 to each family whose house was damaged partially.

Earlier, each person victimised by the floods was provided with Rs 3,000 in cash to purchase food items for a period of 10 days.  

According to a data collected by the NRCS, a total of 98,236 people were affected by floods in the district this year. Another data said that a total of 3,865 houses were completely damaged.