Features

The locals affected by the landslide in Lidi of Jugal Rural Municipality-2 Golche lack clean drinking water.

At present, 615 locals of the village have been provided temporary shelter in tents while five people injured in the landslide have been admitted to the hospital for treatment.

Five hundred meters of polythene pipe was sent from the District Drinking Water Division Office to solve the drinking water problem but it was not enough after which the locals are compelled to drink the water flowing in the stream, informed Pratap Lama, chairperson of Jugal Rural Municipality-2. According to the District Public Health Office, epidemics like diarrhoea could be spread in the monsoon season due to lack of clean drinking water and proper toilet facilities.

Jugal Rural Municipality Chairperson Hom Narayan Shrestha said that 19 people were killed and 20 others were still missing in a landslide that occurred at Lidi village on August 14. There are 172 households in Lidi out of which 29 houses were destroyed by the landslide.

Jugal Rural Municipality Chairperson Shrestha said that it would take some time for Lidi to return to normalcy from the current state of natural calamity. Citizens of Lidi village, who were unable to live due to the earthquake in 2015, immediately fled to save their lives and settled in the forest of Jugal Rural Municipality -1, Selang. The people of Lidi had returned to Lidi village in 2017/18 after the Selang Community Forest Users Committee refused to allow them to settle in the community forest.

This year’s rains have caused problems in the sprawling settlements, landslides have started flowing from above the village and landslides have started moving from below the village after which the locals of the village walked all day, made a written request to the Chief District Officer on August 10 for protection, informed Jal Bahadur Lama of ward no. 2.

Chief District Officer Umesh Kumar Dhakal reprimanded 17 Lidi citizens who went to the District Administration Office with a request of safety. They were given a tent each and then told not to enter his office with such issues, informed Pratap Lama, war chairperson of Lidi.

Three days after the government ignored their demand for safe shelter, a tragic landslide took place in Lidi. However, the survivors of the landslide are again facing the problem of clean drinking water and demanding it from the government informed Jal Bahadur Lama of ward no. 2.

- Nati Babu Dhital