 |
Search : | ||
|
|||
News
|
News stories
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 May 2003 by Khem Aryal of Nepal Red Cross in Chitwan district It was the worst day in the lives of some 200 families in the picturesque village of Jagatpur, in Chitwan district in southern Nepal. On July 22 2002, their homes were engulfed with floodwater as the Rapti River burst its banks. The villagers struggled to reach to safety before their homes were swept away. About 50 people took shelter on the roof of a local school. Another 28 survived atop a concrete house that was left standing, despite badly damaged foundations. Some, like Gokul Chhetri, were extremely fortunate. His fellow villagers saw him being swept away by the floodwaters. But the villagers were dumbstruck when Gokul returned a day later. His family was in mourning. “Many children shouted at me, scared to see what they thought was my ghost,” Gokul recalls. Now the villagers are hoping that such a catastrophe never strikes Jagatpur again. Gokul’s is one of the 40 families that the Nepal Red Cross Society is moving to the safer side of this village in Chitwan district. Gokul is more than happy that, even if his land and house have been swept away, he is alive and his family will be resettled in a more secure location. “The Red Cross has provided us with food and is settling us in the new houses. The Red Cross and its volunteers came to our rescue in the most difficult time of our lives,” says Masina Thapa Magar, who is now living with her family in a rented room in the village. There are thousands of displaced families in the kingdom. The Nepal Red Cross is constructing 225 family houses in seven of the most affected districts, and hopes others will follow its lead. “This is what the Red Cross has been able to do at the best. We hope communities and other organizations will follow our model so that they can rehabilitate the displaced people at the lowest cost,” says the secretary general of the Nepal Red Cross Dev Ratna Dhakhwa. The houses are designed in consultation with the housing department of the Nepal government. Three basic criteria have been followed in building the houses. “The houses will be fire and quake proof,” explains engineer Adista Narayan Jha. “And the land is chosen to ensure that it won't be affected by flood and landslide.” The rehabilitation coordinator of the Nepal Red Cross, Hriseekesh Singh Silwal, adds: “We have designed them as model houses, the best houses at the lowest cost, so that communities can also follow the model and build their own if they get a certain amount of support.” The three-room houses will have a toilet and provision for safe drinking water. The colony of 40 houses, which cover an area of 0.68 hectares, will have a temple and a community hall, too. “Most importantly, the site for the construction was deliberately chosen for its height. We need to resettle the displaced people where they are no longer vulnerable to flooding,” Silwal says. The houses are the surest way to keep these families out of harm’s way. Families like 79-year-old Baliram Darji and his 70-year-old wife Purna Kala, who came to the plains from the hills of Gulmi in north-western Nepal 34 years ago. Baliram is the village’s kotwal, or messenger man, whose job it is to convey to the villagers important public announcements, attracting their attention with his drum, or dholak, and costume. “I’d tell the village about the polio vaccination drive or about the time they needed to pay their taxes. But I didn’t have the time to tell them about the floods in the Rapti.” He earned a pathi, about three kilos, of rice from every family in the village every year. In a village of 750 families, that meant enough rice to see the couple through the year. “We would barter a kilo of fish for two kilos of rice. Something similar for lentils, vegetables or even chicken…..” he says nostalgically of a way of life that all but disappeared just a few months ago. The Rapti came and swept away most of the village, including the elderly couple’s home and all their belongings. “What we need today is a home. In the last few days, we got food from the Red Cross. In the days to come, my food and other needs will be taken care of. What matters is the house because I haven’t the land to build one on. Neither do have any money,” Baliram says. Rehabilitation can also be painful. Rarely do indigenous people want to move when they have settled even if the place becomes more vulnerable with every passing monsoon. But life is more precious. Parma Lal B K, who lives with his two wives and eleven children, is reconciled to the need to relocate. “We have no alternative. We have been able to survive because the Red Cross has looked after us.” For their part, Red Cross volunteers, led by the branch president Padma Prasad Bhushal, who have been a regular presence in the village since the early days of distributing relief, reassure the population that the Red Cross will not abandon them after resettling them in their new homes. “Our responsibility is not over as yet,” Padma Prasad Bhushal says. “We are on hand. All you need to do is to call out to any Red Cross volunteer.” Related links: Nepal Red Cross Nepal: appeals, updates and reports Responding to floods Make a donation |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
