Why Floods and Landslides Ravage Nepal Every year?

– Sangita Poudel

Flood and Landslides cause major problem for several people in many districts of nepal; since, it’s rugged topography and climatic conditions. 80% of the country’s popolation is always at risk of some kind of natural calamities according to the government reports.

Every year, many rivers cause damage during the monsoon in Nepal.The swollen river gushes into the human settlement and damages thousand bigaha of arable land and sweeps hundreds of people to death. Flooding and landslides has caused major problems for people in several districts in the country causing further damage to habitation, roads, and crops. Terai, southern Nepal battered with monsoon floods whereas, hilly region affected by landslides every year. Most of the disaster occur in June to September. Once floods and landslides sweep across human settlements, affected families turn homeless.

Behind frequent flood and landslides in Nepal, both natural and anthropogenic activities are equal. In some cases human activities can be a contributing factor in causing landslides and floods. Deforestation, improper human settlement, unplanned farming, urbanization, exploitation of natural resources from rivers, broken dams, poorly planned alteration of drainage patterns are some of them.

To minimize the probable disaster, all three level of government should rise together. They must focus on awareness and education, mitigation, preparedness for emergency response as well as recovery and reconstruction.