Nepal flood survivors left landless in Nuwakot

Nepal flood survivors in Nuwakot district say they cannot rebuild after floodwaters swept away homes, fields and land, leaving families in temporary shelter or staying with relatives.

Pabitra Lamsal, 45, said her family’s two homes and rice paddy fields in Dhunge Bazaar had vanished. “The river is flowing right where our houses used to stand,” she said while waiting at a government food distribution centre. “There is no land left at all.”

The August 26 flood followed a vast glacial mountain collapse high above the China-Nepal border that crashed into the river below. It has killed more than 1,300 people and left more than 5,600 missing across both countries.

The United Nations appealed Friday for $50 million to help more than 84,000 people in Nepal affected by the disaster.

In Nuwakot, survivors described destroyed buildings, buried vehicles and mud-covered settlements. Army helicopters deployed for rescue operations were flying overhead.

Sumita Tamang, 33, said she was still searching for her missing husband nine days after the flood. Rawendra Dawadi, headteacher of Trishuli Bazaar Secondary School, said the school needed a new site because the area was no longer safe.

At Shree Chandrajyoti Secondary School, hundreds of displaced people from Nuwakot were sheltering in classrooms. Krishna Lal Chitrakar, 72, said the land in Devighat where his home and his sons’ homes once stood “has been turned into a riverbank.”