Floods in Nepal and landslides after heavy rains cause dozens of deaths

Nepal has closed schools for three days after landslides and floods caused by two days of heavy rains in the Himalayan country killed 151 people, with 56 missing, officials said on Sunday.

The floods brought traffic and normal activities to a standstill in the Kathmandu Valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region of four million people and the capital.

Authorities said students and their parents faced problems as university and school buildings damaged by the rain needed repairs.

“We have urged the authorities concerned to close schools in the affected areas for three days,” Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry, told Reuters.

Some parts of the capital reported rainfall of up to 322.2 millimeters, raising the level of the main Bagmati River 2.2 meters above the danger level, experts said.

But there were some signs of a reprieve on Sunday morning as rain eased in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital.

“There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rain is unlikely,” he said.

Television footage showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the main route to Kathmandu.

Weather officials in the capital blamed the rains on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal that extended over parts of neighboring India, close to Nepal.

A haphazard development increases the risks of climate change in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

“I have never seen flooding of this magnitude in Kathmandu before,” said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk officer at the center.

In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to “urgently” increase investment and plans for infrastructure such as underground stormwater and sewerage systems – both of the “grey” or artificial kind, and “green” . or nature-based type.

The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlements and urbanization efforts, construction on flood plains, lack of water retention areas and encroachment on the Bagmati River, it added.

However, the level in the Koshi River in southeastern Nepal has started to fall, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region’s top bureaucrat.

The river, which causes deadly floods in India’s eastern state of Bihar almost every year, had risen above the danger mark.