Sakuntala Devi has been living in a flimsy tent pitched on the road after the flooded Jhaj river inundated her house at Badaharwa settlement in Durgabhagawati Rural Municipality-5, Rautahat on Saturday. The 67-year-old does not know how long her six-member family should languish in such a pitiable condition.

“Living under tents during the rainy season is not easy. We are waiting for the floodwaters to recede so that we can return home,” said Sakuntala. “This is just the beginning of the monsoon season. I don’t know when we can return home. Our ordeal is the same every year.”

It has been raining continuously for the past few days, leaving various settlements at risk of floods and inundation.

There are around 300 households at Badaharwa and 100 of them have been waterlogged. Most of the families living in the settlement are victims displaced by floods in the Bagmati river in 1993.

“Around a 100 families have already been displaced by the recent floods in the Jhaj river this year. The displaced families have moved to higher grounds for safety,” said Chief District Officer Indra Dev Yadav. “Efforts are underway to provide relief materials and manage a safe settlement for the displaced people.”

Some 300 people from the 100 displaced families have been living on a raised platform constructed while making an embankment along the Bagmati river.

The families had sought shelter on the same spot two years ago when their settlement was flooded.

Chief Minister of Province 2 Lalbabu Raut, along with some federal and provincial ministers, had reached Badaharwa in 2019 and met with the flood-affected people. The local people had requested the authorities to relocate them to a safer location.

“The chief minister and ministers had promised to move us elsewhere. But the process has not begun yet,” said Ganesh Sah, a local resident.

The Bagmati, Lalbakaiya and Jhaj, among other rivers and streams, in Rautahat are flooded as it has been raining unabated in the Chure region for the past few days.

According to the District Natural Disaster Management Centre, more than 200 families have been displaced across the district due to monsoon-related disasters.

According to Yadav, several settlements in wards 1, 2, 3 and 9 of Ishanath Municipality, Ward No 9 of Rajdevi Municipality and wards 5, 7 and 8 of Durga Bhagawati Rural Municipality have been affected by floods.

A few days ago, the flooded Bagmati damaged a bridge and eroded its embankment at Singarman in Gadhimai Municipality-9. The river has also started eroding embankments at wards 1 and 2 of Rajdevi Municipality.

According to the District Administration Office, security personnel from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force have been mobilised to repair the damaged embankments.

Police posts and government offices in Rautahat have also been inundated.

“The police posts at Basantpur, Mahadevpatti and the customs post along the Nepal-India border have been moved elsewhere due to inundation,” said Superintendent of Police Siddhi Bikram Shah.