Blemde Ghale, 28, a resident of Khalte in Rasuwa, lost four members of his family—his mother, his eight-year-old son Roman, and his two brothers—in the Bhotekoshi flood. Ghale and his four-month-pregnant wife managed to escape, but a month later, on September 25, they lost their unborn child.

After fleeing Khalte, Ghale and his wife spent some time at a holding centre set up in Laharepauwa before moving to Pipaltar in Nuwakot. On September 22, rainwater leaked from the tent they were sheltering under, soaking their clothes and the rice and lentils that they had received as relief.

“We could not sleep the whole night because of the cold and stress,” Ghale said. The next day, Ghale decided to rent a room in Bidur, even if he had no idea how to pay for it.

Ghale is among hundreds of survivors who lost almost everything in the flood, took refuge in temporary camps for a few weeks, and moved elsewhere as the living conditions there were woefully inadequate. Most of them are currently living in rented rooms across Bidur Municipality. Some have even moved to Kathmandu. With authorities delaying decisions on their rehabilitation, survivors are increasingly leaving the temporary camps set up after the floods.

The flood had washed away over 7,500 houses across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts. Around 4,500 people had sought refuge in makeshift shelters in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Only around 1,000 of them remain in those shelters at present, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

“We came to Kathmandu to save our lives,” said Nabin Raila of Sole in Bidur Municipality. “Staying in the camp became harder by the day.”

But though they have managed to rent a room in Kathmandu, they are worried about how to pay the rent and what to eat, Raila said.

Although the government has announced a provision of Rs15,000 per family per month for six months, flood victims have yet to receive that money. They now fear they could meet the same fate as squatters displaced from riverbanks in the Capital. Most of the evicted squatters have left the holding centres citing poor management and no certainty of permanent rehabilitation.

“The government has not even provided us with relief money to carry out the funeral rites of our loved ones,” said Raila, who lost his mother, brother and sister-in-law in the flood. His house and fields were washed away.

Buti Tamang, who is staying at another camp in Pipaltar, said only those who have nothing left and those who have nowhere to go remain at the camps. Tamang said she lost 43 of her relatives in the flood, including her husband Krishna Bahadur Tamang and her parents. Her hotel in Naubise was washed away and so were her grocery stores in Mailung and Shubhaghat.

Ghale and Tamang are among many survivors who were displaced from Gogane in Rasuwa after the 2015 earthquake. They had moved to Khalte Bagar after engineers and geologists deployed by the then National Reconstruction Authority determined that their original settlement was no longer safe for habitation and that the community needed to be relocated.

Initially, they rented private land in Naubise and built makeshift shelters. They later moved to Khalte Bagar as they could no longer afford the rent and no government support was incoming. Many of those who had moved there were swept away by the devastating flood on August 26. Some survivors are now renting land in Pipaltar and living under tarpaulins.

But the tarps were of such poor quality that not even a single drop of water stayed out, said Uddhab Rijal, chief of the Nepal Red Cross Society’s Nuwakot district chapter. “After all their belongings were soaked, we hurriedly mobilised volunteers and covered the shelters with plastic sheets,” he said.

Rijal said the rain had soaked not only belongings but also people, leaving some sick. He said he himself developed a cold and fever after getting drenched while working at the camps.

Bishwas Nepali, a writer and activist who has been helping out the flood-displaced people in Rasuwa, said many of them have moved to Kathmandu and other places because the camps are uninhabitable and they want their surviving children to continue their education.

According to Nepali, there is no shortage of organisations willing to help. The problem is that the state has not said what kind of houses it will build, where it will build them, or whether it will ask aid agencies to build them.

“Keeping victims in uncertainty for so long without making a decision will prolong their suffering,” Nepali said. “The state must understand the plight of displaced people. Some survivors fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. They lost everything, including their mobile phones, in the flood.”

Flood victims, as well as activists working in the affected areas, said makeshift shelters are no longer fit for habitation, and their biggest concern is the approaching winter. Some displaced families now consist only of children, while others have only elderly members. Those who could earn a living also couldn’t leave the camps to work because the vulnerable family members would be without care.

Donors willing to help have said they cannot provide assistance until the central government decides, raising fears that the displaced will be forced to endure difficult living conditions for a prolonged period.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has said that displaced families of four people will get Rs15,000 a month as rent for six months and those choosing temporary settlement will get Rs50,000 as a one-time aid.

However, none of the families of the deceased or displaced families have received any amount of money from the government.

“We have registered 580 persons from our municipality as missing and 1,536 families under the displaced list,” said Salikram Ghimire, chief of the information technology section at Bidur Municipality. “But we have not provided a relief amount to anyone as of now.”

Municipal officials say the number of displaced families will rise, as those who went to Kathmandu and elsewhere after the flood return to the district to register their names.

“We have not declared anyone dead, nor have provided relief for funeral rites,” said Ghimire.

Rabindra Nepal, chair of Bidur-7, said 175 families from the ward have been designated as displaced, but none have received any relief money so far.

Officials at the authority said that unless a new decision is made, flood-displaced people will get the relief amount mentioned in existing guidelines.

“For the victims to get the relief amount, respective local units have to designate them as displaced and recommend a relief amount,” said Shanti Mahat, the authority’s spokesperson, adding that the local bodies are still verifying the number of victims and affected families.

Meanwhile, Buti Tamang, the victim staying at Pipaltar camp, said the delay and uncertainty is gnawing at her. “We have nowhere to go,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder why I survived the flood.”