Northern Gorkha declared disaster-hit after Budhi Gandaki flash flood

The Cabinet on Friday, 16 October, declared the three Gorkha rural municipalities disaster-hit, together with wards 1 and 2 of Tripurasundari Rural Municipality in Dhading and the Galkot and Dhorpatan municipalities in Baglung, Republica reported. The designation runs for three months and is intended to speed up relief and reconstruction.

The Gorkha listings follow the flood of Sunday, 11 October, when a surge of mud, boulders and debris swept down the Budhi Gandaki. Local officials told Onlinekhabar that more than 35 houses were carried away in settlements including Salleri, Bagar and Ghattikhola, and that a hydropower project under construction at Salleri was damaged. No deaths had been reported by that morning.

Officials believe a landslide briefly dammed the Syar Khola, a tributary, and that the flood was released when the blockage failed. Police said the water destroyed a road bridge between Manbu and Soti, a concrete bridge at Soti linking two wards of Aarughat, and a suspension bridge connecting Chumnubri and Dharche.

Trekkers stranded in Manaslu

The flood struck at the height of the autumn trekking season. The Manaslu Conservation Area Project said more than 100 foreign visitors were held at Jagat, the gateway to the conservation area, after the main trail and several suspension bridges were damaged, while smaller groups waited at Lokpa and in the Chum valley. Officials said everyone was in a safe location and that helicopter evacuations were being organised.

Alongside the declaration, the Cabinet approved rent support for families whose homes were damaged and who arrange their own shelter rather than staying in holding centres: Rs 15,000 a month for up to four people, plus Rs 2,000 for each additional member, for a maximum of six months. It also accepted emergency grants of 298 million yen from Japan and 20 million euros from Germany.

Photographs taken at Arughat the morning after the flood showed riverside settlements and infrastructure buried under mud. Chief District Officer Dharmendra Kumar Mishra said authorities were still collecting details of the damage.

Sources

Onlinekhabar English (external link); Onlinekhabar English (external link); The Kathmandu Post (external link); Republica (external link)