Continuous and heavy rainfall on Sunday inundated several houses in Barbadiya, Gulariya and Bansgadhi municipalities in Bardiya district while three people went missing in the Babai River.

A 30-year-old man from ward 12 of Gulariya Municipality went missing in the river while he was collecting driftwood, said Superintendent of Police, Hikmat Bahadur Bohara. Another youth aged 23 years from Gulariya-8 also went missing in the river on Sunday, he said. ”Nepal Police, Nepal Army and Armed Police Force personnel have been deployed to search for the missing youths in the Babai River,” he said.

A third man, a resident of Gulariya-2 also went missing in the same river on Sunday.

According to the District Administration Office, around 60 houses in Auri, Bhagatpur and Dudha villages and 120 houses in Kuinti village of Barbardiya Municipality; 43 houses in Bansgadhi Municipality, and 100 houses in Gulariya Municipality have been inundated following heavy rainfall on Sunday.

“Police have been deployed in the affected areas and rescue work is ongoing with the help of the locals,” said Bohara.

Embankments in several places along the Babai River have been damaged by floods. The residents of the settlements near the river have been asked to seek shelter in safer places to avoid disaster, said Parbati Tharu, a local of Pragyapur in Gulariya-5.

“Security personnel have started blowing sirens to inform the locals to leave the low-level land and move to higher ground,” she said.

The water flow in the Babai River increased on Sunday, eroding the embankments in Khailar in Thakurdwara and affecting the Babai Irrigation Project site, according to the project chief Sushil Devkota. “The increasing water flow in the river has caused the embankment slope of the Babai Irrigation Project to slip. Officials are trying to control the flood erosion of the embankment,” said Devkota.

According to Assistant Chief District Officer of Bardiya, Mohan Aryal, Rammapur received 226.4mm of rain in the past 24 hours. Likewise, the hydrology station in Chepang recorded 172mm of rainfall on Sunday.

As rain is expected to continue till Monday, riverbank settlements have been requested to remain on high alert, said Aryal. “It has been raining continuously and it is safer to stay away from riverbank areas,” he said.

Floods and landslides following heavy rainfall since Sunday morning have obstructed several road sections in the Koshi province.

In Taplejung, a 7-km stretch of an approach road to a motorable bridge over the Maiwa stream connecting Dovan Bazaar in Meringden Rural Municipality to Aathrai Triveni Rural Municipality-5 was washed away by floods obstructing vehicular movement over the bridge throughout Sunday.

The residents of Dovan Bazaar have been alerted about the possible floods and landslides in the area, according to local officials.

In Udayapur, a landslide near the Maubasi stream in Udayapurgadhi Rural Municipality-5 has obstructed vehicular movement along the Madan Bhandari Highway. Around 100 metres of the road stretch have been buried under landslide debris, said police. Long-route vehicles travelling from west to east have been diverted to Katari while vehicles travelling from the opposite direction have been redirected to Gaighat, according to Gaighat District Traffic Police Office. The landslide-hit area is located some 22 km east of Katari and about 30 km west of the district headquarters.

Similarly, continuous rainfall on Sunday in Sunsari caused roadblocks in Barahakshetra Municipality-1. Roads in some local units of Ilam and Tehrathum districts have been affected by landslides.

Vehicular movement along the Phungling section of the Mechi Highway came to a halt due to landslides near the Khokse stream. According to the Provincial Police Office, police personnel have been deployed to clear the road section to resume traffic.

In Jhapa, a bridge over the Biring River along the Khudunabari-Sanischare road section in Arjundhara Municipality has sustained damage from floods in the river bringing vehicular movement to a stop.