Kathmandu, July 2 (IANS) A newborn child and its mother, and a father and his two teenaged children, were among the 15 people killed in Nepal in two days as floods and landslides played havoc with the start of a vigorous monsoon.
Three children were killed in Accham district in western Nepal Saturday, taking the toll to 15 amidst growing reports of rivers breaching their embankments and roads being blocked by landslides.
Reports of death and devastation were pouring in from different corners of the Himalayan republic, including the remote north where a small hydropower project in Mustang district had been affected by the rains.
All eyes remained on the Kosi river in southern Nepal, known as the sorrow of Bihar, the Indian state neighbouring Nepal.
With the flow of water in the rain-gorged river Friday flowing at 159,000 cusec, there was a little relief with the flow decreasing to 150,600 cusec Saturday.
However, despite the decrease, the mighty river was continuing to erode its embankments and work to contain the river was proving ineffectual.
In 2008, the Kosi flooded Sunsari district in Nepal and Bihar, rendering over 60,000 people homeless in Nepal while the number of victims went up to over 2 million in Bihar.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
