After Nepal disaster, Sikkim faces flood risk; 40-high risk glacial lakes identified

Survivors of catastrophic floods in Nepal have been left landless, forced to rely on relatives or temporary camps for shelter, according to reports. Pabitra Lamsal, a 45-year-old woman who had lived in Dhunge Bazaar, Nuwakot district for over four decades, now finds herself without land after the floodwaters claimed her two homes and rice paddy fields.

"There is no land left at all," she lamented, waiting at a government food distribution center in Nuwakot. With nine members of her family, they have no idea where they will reside, having rented two rooms for shelter but lacking a stove to cook on, forcing them to eat at relatives' homes. The river has swallowed all their savings.

The devastating August 26 floods, triggered by a massive glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border, have claimed over 1,300 lives and left more than 5,600 people missing across Nepal and China. The United Nations has appealed for $50 million to aid the more than 84,000 affected individuals in Nepal. Sumita Tamang, who is searching for her missing husband, expressed her despair, stating she has yet to receive any news of him after nine days.

"I hope he's out there somewhere and will come home," she cried, her voice cracking with tears. Rawendra Dawadi, a 47-year-old headteacher, described the disaster as worse than a 2015 earthquake that also hit the region. "This disaster is far worse. The school was completely destroyed by the earthquake, but we rebuilt it. Back then, we still had the land; this time, we've lost the land as well as the building."

Dawadi needs a new site for the school's reconstruction, emphasizing that the current location is no longer safe. At the Shree Chandrajyoti Secondary School, which is housing hundreds of displaced people from Nuwakot district, families queue for hot meals. Krishna Lal Chitrakar, a 72-year-old man, recounted how the land in Devighat, where his home and his three sons once stood, has now become a riverbank.

"My father and four generations of my family lived in this spot," he said, visibly distressed. "We have lost everything. But everyone is alive. Should I be happy or sad?"