Pratima Tamang Lama was a headstrong woman who simply could not be persuaded to put herself first. She wore many hats—she was a nurse, a former volleyball player and the vice-chair of Gosaikunda Rural Municipality. Until August 21, Pratima was in Kathmandu for treatment of migraine, with which she was struggling for years. Her husband, KD Lama, had asked her to stay in the capital city for a specialist appointment. But Pratima insisted on returning to Rasuwa, citing urgent municipal work.

On the morning of August 26, Pratima was at her office in Syaphrubesi on the banks of the Bhotekoshi river. Shortly after 9 am, KD, who works at a bank in Kathmandu, received a warning of flood from his aunt living high above the riverbank. A massive flood was rushing downstream at alarming speed, she told him. KD immediately called Pratima. It was 9:16am. Pratima received the call. But all KD heard over the line were a series of heavy, frantic gasps and a single, desperate cry—“Aama, Aama!” Seconds later, the line went dead. It never connected again.

In a disaster that has claimed over 1,451 lives, left over 5,000 people unaccounted for, and wiped out entire settlements across Rasuwa, Pratima’s death represents a uniquely devastating blow to her district. Pratima was not merely another statistic in the flood. She was one of Rasuwa’s fiercest young champions. Rejecting family pressure to move abroad, Pratima, 32, spent her youthful days buying medicines with her own savings, personally funding surgeries for impoverished children, and eventually stepping into politics to push for systemic reform.

When the mud-choked waters erased Syaphrubesi, they didn’t just end a life. They cut short the rise of an ambitious leader who dreamed of becoming Nepal’s health minister.

Pratima’s devotion to her hometown was evident long before she held public office. After completing her Bachelor’s in Nursing in 2017 from Kathmandu’s Yeti Health Science Academy, well-wishers advised her to pursue a career overseas. She refused. Returning to Rasuwa, she managed border health desks and spent her weekends walking to remote hamlets to conduct hygiene workshops. She used her own wedding gift money to purchase stationery for local students.

When she joined Bagmati Province’s ‘One School, One Nurse’ programme at her alma mater, Shree Komin Shyame Wangphel Secondary School, she personally funded a trip to Kathmandu for a visually impaired ten-year-old student, Nimajemo Tamang. Nimajemo fully recovered her sight after treatment. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, while authorities scrambled for protocols, Pratima was already going door-to-door delivering masks, medicines, and sanitisers, eventually earning the Bagmati provincial government’s Best Nurse Award.

It was this relentless drive that pushed locals to demand her entry into politics. Outspoken since her student days in the Kathmandu-Rasuwa Samparka Manch under the CPN-UML, she resigned as a school nurse just a day before filing her nomination for vice-chair of Gosaikunda in 2022.

In office, she successfully lobbied for free local education in her very first municipal budget. But her vision stretched far beyond local government. “She tried her best to improve healthcare in the district,” KD said. “But she also saw systemic shortcomings that only central policy could fix.”

Four days after the disaster, KD reached the wiped-out settlement of Syaphrubesi, searching in vain for Pratima, his second-eldest brother, and his sister-in-law. No remains were ever recovered from the metres of thick sand left behind by the river. A week later, KD’s 83-year-old father, Singi Nurpu Lama, performed final Buddhist rites for 33 victims lost across the settlements of Thulo and Sano Bharkhu.

Nearly a month after the catastrophic floods, Rasuwa and other affected districts are beginning the long work of recovery. The government is counting the cost of reconstruction. But for KD, there is no accounting for what he lost.

“I am still unable to sleep properly,” he said. “I am still waiting for messages and calls from Pratima that will never come.”