128 landslide survivors in Nawalparasi homeless

As many as 128 people from 18 households at Hupsekot rural municipality-5 in Nawalparasi district, who were displaced by a landslide last August, have been living under the open sky enduring freezing cold.

They were rescued and relocated to a nearby school at Beluwa in Hupsekot following the disaster. As the school has resumed its classes, the landslide survivors have been further relocated to a bus park construction site.

Among the displaced, three families have been taking refuge in a local school while two others have been staying in the office building of Hupsekot rural municipality ward no 1. Likewise, 13 other families have been living in makeshift tents.

Tam Bahadur Rana is living with eight members in the makeshift tent. He, who owned 0.75 acres of land in his village, has no other alternative than staying in a temporary shelter.

"Our house was rendered inhabitable by the landslide; the debris of landslide has broken apart the arable land and created fissures too. It has been increasingly difficult to spend the night in bone-chilling winter," wailed Rana. Min Bahadur Somai shared that he is worried that his children would become ill due to the cold inside makeshift tents.

"When will we get rid of unsafe and unmanaged stay like this under the tent?" Food problems have also plagued the landslide survivors who were living off by agriculture and husbandry in their village. "We don’t have land here to work on. When we seek a job, we don’t get one. We are having problems running our households," bemoaned Prem Bahadur Barahghare, 32.

Earlier, he was earning a living by goat farming. He sold off all 50 of his goats at a throwaway price post landslide. "Here we don’t have open space to run poultry even on a small scale. How to make a living here?" he said.

The landslide survivors have been making a living out of relief packages provided by local government and social organizations which are not enough to go by. However, the chief administrator of Hupsekot rural municipality, Pawan Aryal, shared that a temporary shelter was under-construction at public land close to Shivalaya Community Forest at Jukepani in the district to house the landslide survivors. Although they intended to shift the displaced landslide survivors prior to winter, it had not been possible yet, due to various reasons, he admitted.