Nepal closed schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain in the Himalayan country killed 151 people and 56 were missing, authorities said on Sunday (29).
The floods paralyzed traffic and normal activity in the Kathmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region where 4 million people live and in the capital.
Authorities said students and their parents faced hardship as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repairs.
“We have asked the authorities concerned to close schools in the affected areas for three days,” Education Ministry spokesperson Lakshmi Bhattarai told Reuters.
Some parts of the capital reported rainfall of up to 322.2 mm, raising the level of its main Bagmati river by 2.2 meters beyond the danger mark, experts said.
But there were some signs of respite on Sunday morning, with rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a meteorologist in the capital.
“There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rainfall is unlikely,” he said.
Television footage showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using pickaxes and shovels to clear mud and rescue 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a huge landslide at a site on the main route to Kathmandu.
Meteorological authorities in the capital attributed the storms to a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal that extends across parts of neighboring India, near Nepal.
Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
“I have never seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu,” said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, environmental risk officer at the center.
In a statement, he urged the government and urban planners to “urgently” intensify investment and plans for infrastructure, such as underground rainwater and sewage systems, both of the “grey” or engineering type, and “green”, based in nature.
The impact of the rains was compounded by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanization efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of water retention areas and encroachment into the Bagmati River, he added.
However, the level of the Koshi River in southeastern Nepal has started to fall, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region’s top bureaucrat.
The river, which causes deadly floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar almost every year, was running above the danger mark, at a level almost three times normal, he said.
This content was originally published in Nepal closes schools after rain causes 151 deaths on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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