Survivors of monsoon floods that devastated Nepal over the weekend criticized the government on Tuesday for inadequate relief efforts during the disaster that killed at least 225 people.
Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is making them worse.
Entire areas of the capital Kathmandu were submerged over the weekend, with villages in remote areas of the Himalayan country also awaiting relief efforts.
“There are no roads, so no one has come,” Mira KC, who lives in a village in Kavre district, east of Kathmandu, told AFP.
“Even if they do, those who died are already dead and the damage has been done. They will just express condolences, what will they do?”
The floods badly affected Kathmandu’s poorest residents living in haphazard slums along the banks of the Bagmati River and its tributaries, which flow through the city.
Slum resident Man Kumar Rana Magar, 49, told AFP that authorities had provided him and his neighbors shelter in a school after their homes were flooded.
However, they said they were forced to leave before they were ready to return to their homes when schools reopened for classes.
“We are very close to the seat of government. If they cannot take care of the poor so closely, what will they do for others?” He said.
According to police, at least 225 people died in the floods, while 24 others are still missing. More than 4,000 other people were rescued.
Nepal’s weather bureau said preliminary data showed 240 millimeters (9.4 inches) of rain fell in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, the heaviest single-day rainfall in more than two decades.
‘Ignoring precautions’
Experts said officials did not prepare adequately for the disaster despite forecasts of an intense storm.
“Precautions that should have been taken were ignored,” Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a climate expert at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, a Kathmandu-based think tank, told AFP.
Nepalese disaster management expert Maan Bahadur Thapa said lack of coordination and resources also hindered the rescue process.
“If we had prepared and built the capacity of our responders, we could have saved a lot more lives,” he told AFP.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was visiting the United States during the floods and was widely criticized on social media for not cutting short his visit when the scale of the disaster became clear.
“In such sensitive times, we all have to work together in a realistic manner and not just criticize for the sake of it,” he told reporters upon his return to Nepal on Monday.
Monsoon rains bring widespread death and destruction in the form of floods and landslides throughout South Asia every year.
Experts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
This year, more than 300 people have died in rain-related disasters in Nepal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
