A month after the Budhi Gandaki flood, victims say no one has come to help

A month after a devastating flood in the Budhi Gandaki river swept through Shyauli Bazaar in Dhading, the families who lost their homes say they are still waiting for help.

The flood struck on 11 October 2026, destroying houses, paddy fields, livestock and household goods in Vishalnagar, in Tripurasundari Rural Municipality-2. Some houses were left so badly damaged that they cannot be lived in.

Residents say the cleanup, the removal of debris and the rebuilding of homes have barely begun. They have been clearing mud and wreckage themselves, paying for the work from their own pockets.

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Sur Shrestha, a local farmer, lost the paddy field that produced about 50 muri of rice a year. "We lost the basis on which we stored food for the whole year," he said. He and his wife fled with only the clothes they could carry in a bag and Rs 50,000 they had set aside for Dashain.

He said a flood had struck the same area decades earlier, but this time the damage was far worse. "This time all the crops planted in the fields were destroyed," he said.

Rajkumar Dahal, another resident, said the state has provided no effective help so far. "The flood brought down our houses and blocked the road. We have had to remove the mud and debris ourselves," he said. "We have suffered huge losses, but there is no one to listen to our pain."

Some families who lost their homes during Dashain took shelter in the Chulidevi school building, but found too little food and lodging there. Residents say elected representatives and officials have not visited the settlement to see the damage for themselves, and attention has gone only to the new bridge area.

A bulldozer sent to the area could not reach inside the settlement, so residents opened a road themselves, pulling down damaged houses to clear a way through.

For Ram Maya Ghale, the flood filled her house with mud and stones until it could no longer be lived in. Food, clothes and household goods were ruined, and her livestock were caught in the flood. She managed to untie her goats and save them, but could not save anything from inside the house.

"Mud has filled the house. It is not possible to live there. I worry about where to go and where to stay," she said. "I have no strength to throw out the mud, and I have small children. There is no one to help."

Residents say the flood has also left them shaken, and that the Dashain festival passed without any sense of celebration. With pigs and other livestock lost, their livelihoods have become harder still.

The families are asking the government and the concerned bodies to start immediate relief, cleanup, housing and livelihood support programmes.