Ravaged Melamchi Bazaar wants to revive

Chairperson of Ward No. 11 in Melamchi Municipality, Rudra Dulal, is now busy collecting details of the losses of physical property in Melamchi Bazaar and is trying to rehabilitate locals who have lost their houses.

Melamchi Bazaar was ravaged by the floods three weeks back. Almost all physical structures in the market area have been damaged and where there once used to be a bustling market there lies piles of sand.

The massive floods and landslides triggered by the heavy rains also damaged a historic bridge constructed by Chandra Shumsher.

Dulal shares that loss of human lives had been minimised due to the information shared early regarding the floods with people living in areas close to the Indrawati River. However, he says that they could do nothing much to save people’s houses, hotels and restaurants and municipality offices, and structures that were destroyed in the massive floods.

The police had alerted the people about the impending floods in the Indrawati River due to which people could move to safer places and survived the disaster, he adds.

Dulal says that June 15 will forever be imprinted in his mind. After the police started alerting people some of them left their houses even without eating their dinners that had already been prepared, he relates. "People moved to the local school where the Nepal Army provided the displaced people with meals," he adds.

“The next morning the entire area was covered with flood sludge. The river had entered the market. We had not imagined that the destruction would be to such a big extent,” he reminisces about the disaster.

Dulal informs that 140 houses in his ward were fully damaged and 42 are at high risk. Those whose houses were damaged are now looking for rooms to rent.

The municipality has decided to provide the room rent of two months to 200 households. He further added the people want to stay in concrete houses rather than in temporary settlements.

Similarly, Mayor of Melamchi Municipality, Dambar Bahadur Aryal, said the municipality has provided some relief to the survivors but both the provincial and federal governments should provide necessary assistance for a sustainable solution.

Aryal mentioned the municipality has filled the forms which will be forwarded to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority to ascertain the beneficiaries. He added that 10 excavators are being used by the municipality to return the Melamchi and Indrawati Rivers to their original course and remove the debris.

The ravaged Melamchi Bazaar seeks its revival with assistance from all sides, he added.