Madan Karki, 55, and four of his family members have been staying in a two-storey wooden house at Khalla in ward 9 of Bhimdatta Municipality in Kanchanpur district. The house is flanked on both sides by streams, which remain dry except for a few months during the monsoon season. As his village lies at the foothill of the Chure forest, the seasonal streams known as khahare in Nepali, are flooded during heavy rains.

In the first week of July, the flooded streams arrived at Karki’s front yard after washing away the road and isolating Khalla, Tundikhel and Musetti settlements from the rest of the district.

“If the floods hit again, the house will be swept away. We won’t even be able to flee if the streams get flooded at night,” Karki said. “The water has come close to the house. We don’t know when the house will be swept away. We cannot stay in the house when it rains.”

The floods in various streams in Khalla, Tundikhel and Musetti areas damaged the road and swept away hectares of paddy fields. “It was the biggest destruction caused by floods in years,” said Karki.

Khalla lies some five kilometers to the north Brahmadev, the nearest market place. The Chure range lies just above the settlement in the eastern side while the Mahakali river flows in the west. There are around half a dozen streams along the Brahmadev-Musetti road stretch which is around eight kilometers in length.

The road has suffered severe damage in several places, making it difficult for local residents to manage essential goods and for students to go to school. “The road has been completely blocked for the past two weeks. The villagers have to carry patients on stretchers or in doko (bamboo baskets) in case anyone falls ill or gets injured. We requested the ward office and the municipality several times to repair the flood-damaged road and resume transportation, but they haven’t heeded,” said Kisan Bhat of Musetti. Kisan and around a dozen locals of Musetti area reached the municipality’s office in Bhimdattanagar on Wednesday.

The school students are hit hardest by the transportation disruption. There are only basic schools in Khalla and Musetti, so the students have to go to Brahmadev for secondary education. Due to the road obstruction, they have to walk for about an hour to reach the school. Moreover, when it rains, the students are unable to go to school due to the lack of bridges.

There are about 500 households in Khalla, Tundikhel and Musetti area. This area is disconnected almost every year during the monsoon season. “We have problems taking pregnant women and the sick to the hospital due to road obstructions every rainy season,” said Birendra Bista of Musetti.

Around 300 families in the Musetti area have been living without power over the past two weeks after an electric transformer broke down. “The Nepal Electricity Authority has not been able to repair or replace the transformer due to the blocked road. As the village is under the darkness, the risk of snakebite has also increased,” said Bista.

According to Bista, cell phone service was also disrupted in the area for a week. “The telephone service has since resumed, but we don’t have electricity to charge our cell phones,” he added.

Owing to the road disruption for more than two weeks, a shortage of essential commodities is looming in Khalla, Tundikhel and Musetti areas. Local residents have to reach Tanakpur, an Indian border town, through Brahmadev to buy food grain and other daily consumables.

The local people vented their ire stating that the municipality and other authorities concerned are indifferent to their hardships. They complain that even walking has become difficult as the floods swept away the road in various places.

“Efforts are on to resume transportation by repairing the flood-damaged road,” said Gagan Singh Karki, the ward chairman of ward 9 of Bhimdatta Municipality. “The repair work has yet to begin as it has been raining in the area.”