Nepal flood wiped out village built to resettle earthquake survivors

The flood that tore through the Nepali village of Khalte on 26 August left at least 375 people from the village missing, according to residents. Khalte, in Rasuwa district, existed because the government built it: after the 2015 earthquake destroyed nearby villages, some 257 households were moved there under an official relocation plan. The floods that swept Nepal's mountainous border region with China killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands missing.

Khalte's homes stood clustered along the Trishuli River in a narrow valley that offered few routes out when the water came. Geological assessments later classified the site as a red zone for landslide and avalanche risk — a classification that arrived after the households had moved in. Bam Bahadur Tamang, now in a government relief centre, says he and many others opposed the resettlement and were eventually forced to accept it. Chheku Lama, who ran uphill shouting for people to flee, says a group followed him and none survived.

Nepal's government now plans a new city for the flood victims, complete with industries, hospitals and schools, and says the displaced will not be returned to settlements destroyed by the flood. It is considering private developers, including a model in which they build homes in cooperation with landowners. Dharam Raj Uprety, chief executive of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, says experts will assess land use, flood-prone areas can be declared uninhabitable and vulnerable riverbanks converted to forest. He also describes the limits of his own agency: "The disaster authority cannot do all of that work itself. Its role is largely to coordinate and create an environment in which other agencies incorporate disaster risk into their planning."

The pattern is a decade old. The 2015 earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people nationwide; tens of thousands have been displaced by earthquakes, landslides and floods since. Last week another flash flood in north-central Nepal left at least five people missing, and scientists warn that rising temperatures and unstable mountain landscapes keep the remote valleys exposed to sudden floods and glacial lake outbursts.

Tamang's demand is procedural rather than radical: "Wherever the government resettles us now, it must first ensure that the place is safe. We are not cattle to be moved from one place to another."