Border villages submerged due to Indian dam

Published On: June 27, 2016 01:45 AM NPT By: Jitendra Kumar Jha


TILATHI, SAPTARI, June 27:  Villagers living close to no-man's land in Saptari district are having hard times during monsoon since some years as floods have started to submerge their settlement, destroy crops and damage roads.

Although annual floods in the plains is not a new issue, the situation has become aggravated by the construction of a dam across the border. Since the last five years, over half a dozen villages in the district have been submerged every monsoon, rendering thousands of people homeless and destroying their crops.

The problem started after India built a dam to control the flow of water in a way that suits the regional powerhouse. The course of the Khando and Jita rivers that flow through Tilathi VDC of Saptari to the Indian territory was diverted by the embankment built by India. As a result, Tilathi, Launiya, Sakrpura, Rampura, Malhniya, Koiladi and Lalapatti get flooded every rainy season.

Although locals of the villages are facing such problems since the last five years, government authorities have done nothing except giving assurances. All Nepalis residing in these villages ask how long do they have to face such problem? When will they get rid of annual inundation?  

One of the elderly of Sakarpura village, Badri Mukhiya, has been asking the same question to the government authorities from local level to national level for a decade. None of them have ever answered his question.

Seventy-year-old Mukhiya, once again, asked the same question to Minister for Irrigation Umesh Kumar Yadav, who was in the district on Sunday to inspect the flood-hit villages. Minister Yadav also did not give a satisfactory answer. “Yes, we'll do. We'll work toward solving the problem soon,” he responded.

But Nepali Congress President of Tilathi village, Ratneshwar Jha, said, “We have been raising the issue for a long time. But our government is not bothered about the problem at all. He argued that no country can erect an infrastructure near the no-man's land without agreement of its neighbor. But India has done so.  

Likewise, Dineshwor Mishra, former president of Tilathi VDC, said that the root cause of the problem is the state's indifference toward the Indian hegemony. "All the government does is give assurances," Mishra commented.

“Governments of both the countries have turned a deaf year to our concerns,” he said. According to him, locals of flood-affected areas have also submitted memorandum to the chief minister of Bihar state of India.

"In the monsoon, thousands of houses get washed away by floods rendering the people homeless. Even their farms and crops get swept away," one of the retired school teachers, Dayakant Jha, said. “Nepal government's failure to raise our concerns with India has prolonged the plight due to floods every monsoon.”


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