Nepali and Indian officials are all set to conduct on-site inspection to assess the problem of flooding that occurs every year in Nepal’s Tarai region and find a sustainable solution to the crisis. 

According to an official at Foreign Ministry, the joint team will inspect the flood-prone area in three phases—before monsoon, during monsoon and post-monsoon. “It has been decided to deploy teams to study the situation of flooding to identify the real cause of inundation,” the official said. 

During the 12th meeting of Nepal-India Joint Committee on Inundation and Flood Management (JCIFM) held in Kathmandu, senior officials from Nepal and India had agreed to work on taming perennial inundation problem caused by rivers. The meeting decided to appoint four members each from both India and Nepal for inspection. Deputy Director General at Department of Water Induced Disaster Management (DWIDM) will lead Nepali team, while Director of Ganga Flood Control Commission will head the Indian side.

Both the teams will visit Nepal’s Tarai region from Jhapa in the east to Parsa on June 27. “Initially the technical teams will find the cause of the inundation,” said Madhukar Prasad Raj Bhandari, Director General at DWIDM.  He added the study will also assess the damages caused due to the infrastructure built by Indian side.

Huge swaths of land in Nepal’s Tarai region are inundated every year due to the structures built by India at the bordering rivers, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and damaging property worth billions of rupees. 

According to Nepali officials, construction of over five dozen embankments at Laxmanpur, Mahalisagar, Rasiyawal, and Khurdalotan, among other places, have obstructed natural flow of water, thereby creating the problem of inundation.

Two years ago, a serious dispute had ensued after the Indian side started building an embankment at no-man’s land near Tilathi in Saptari district. Locals from Nepali side of the border dismantled the embankment built by Indian side saying the structure caused flooding in their locality. 

In a joint statement during the state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, Nepal and India had reiterated the importance of advancing cooperation in water resources for mutual benefit in areas such as river training works, inundation and flood management, irrigation, and to enhance pace of implementation of ongoing bilateral projects.  The two prime ministers had also expressed satisfaction over constitution of the joint team, which will visit areas affected by inundation and floods and consider appropriate measures for sustainable solution.