In July, torrential monsoon rains inundated the Nepalese village of Tulsiyahi Jabdi, which lies south-west of the historical city of Janakpur in the country’s famed Terai region. This fertile savannah across the border from India is home to nearly half of Nepal’s inhabitants and is normally the most productive agricultural and industrial region in the country.
However, this year’s floods have taken a heavy toll on residents, wiping out thousands of homes and decimating crops.
“It looked like a sea, we could not do anything… Nothing was possible in the first few days, though we were ready with relief items,” says Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh, the Nepal Red Cross president in Dhanusa and a physician in Janakpur. “We never thought river boats would be needed here in the plains.”
More than 2,000 Red Cross volunteers were mobilized all over Nepal in an effort to reach isolated villages, like Tulsiyahi, with desperately needed relief supplies.
“It was not one or two days of rains as it used to be in the past,” Dr. Singh continues. “It rained continuously, for more than three weeks.”
Meanwhile in Tulsiyahi, the village’s 200 families found safe haven in the local school and the temple. With no hope of evacuation and no medical attention available, diarrhoea and vomiting, which often follow severe floods, afflicted entire families.
Kalam Husain Yahev, 35, tried to cure his wife and four children when the illness hit. Nothing worked and within days his wife passed away never having seen a doctor.
“Who will care for our children while I go to work? My young kids will miss their mother’s affection forever. They have been missing her for weeks,” he says while waving toward his children sleeping on the cool floor, “How can I care for them?” he asks.
For now, Yahev’s 10-year-old and eldest daughter, Nanu, is expected to look after her brothers and sister. School resumed recently and Nanu’s friends are back in class while she makes sure her siblings get to school and takes care of the household chores. She’s still trying to repair the house, which was badly damaged when the flood waters caused the mud walls to collapse.
Throughout South Asia, floods and landslides this season affected upwards of 43 million people, in particular the poor and disadvantaged. In Nepal, early July rains in the Himalayas came rushing downstream in a torrent to combine with heavy monsoons, thus creating the unusually long-lasting floods in the Terai.
“This is the second time in my lifetime I have seen such a big flood and vast water-logged areas continuing for more than three weeks,” said 80-year-old Bilath Sahu, who works with the Red Cross radio programme in Nepal.
In addition to Yahev’s wife, more than 160 people died. In some cases, entire families were wiped out. Thousands of acres of agricultural land have been deserted. Survivors numbering around 97,000 families throughout two-thirds of Nepal’s districts are facing sustained challenges as they struggle to get access to adequate nutrition and proper hygiene.
In an effort to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, the International Federation launched an appeal for 2.3 million Swiss francs ($1.9 million USD/euro 1.4 million). It aims to help 120,000 people over the next year.