BIRATNAGAR, Aug 11: Every year, monsoon brings not only rainfall for the Biratnagar folks but also fear of inundation as there are no flood embankments in two big rivers that swell up alarmingly after the downpour.
The locals in 6, 11, 12, 15 and 16 no Wards of Biratnagar Metropolitan City are at risk of flood and inundation in the lack of embankments in the Singhiya and Keshalya Rivers. The flood sweeps away the arable land and river water enters the human settlements. Construction of the flood embankments in Keshalya River that is westward to the Municipality and Singhiya in the eastern part of this industrial town are therefore an urgent need of the hour, the locals demand.
According to the Office of the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention in Biratnagar, once the construction cost for embankment in the Keshalya River was estimated at over Rs 4 billion while over Rs 1 billion was estimated to have cost for building embankments in the Singhiya River, but no works advanced.
The gabion wire that was used in the embankment made from Keshalyaghat to Santhiya was stolen by the smugglers further increasing the risk of inundation, according to a local from Biratnagar-6, Satya Jivan Chaudhary. There was no alternative to building embankments to prevent river water entering the human settlements during the flood, asserted local Rajesh Dangol. The locals have called upon the concerned authorities to pay timely attention towards the flood and inundation issue to avert disaster in the future.