In Nuwakot’s flooded villages, grief comes before rescue

Three days after the Bhotekoshi River flooded, many villages in Nepal's Nuwakot district remain without aid, and the search for bodies has barely begun. Survivors describe a landscape of submerged homes, thick mud, and the lingering stench of decomposition.

In villages like Gerku, Betrawati, and Aaitar, houses are underwater, and the surviving residents have fled their deserted settlements. Betrawati, once a vibrant town significant for its religious pilgrimage site, historical peace treaty with Tibet, and trade route, is now unrecognizable. The iconic bridge is gone, farmland has turned into barren riverbeds, and centuries-old Newar settlements have been wiped out.

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I keep seeing the flood and water splashing even in my dreams. I cannot return home. I have no clothes to wear. I am wearing clothes borrowed from my relatives.

For those who survived, the flood left little behind. Ishwari Pyakurel, who lost her mother-in-law, house, and farmland, is sheltering with relatives, haunted by dreams of the disaster. Her extended family also suffered immense loss, with her sister, brother-in-law, and granddaughter swept away, and another relative missing.

Families are engaged in a desperate wait for news, sifting through debris for any sign of loved ones. Pramod Rijal and Pragati Adhikari, court employees, are missing their seven-year-old daughter, along with Pramod's elderly parents, who were at their home in Angitar when the flood hit. The scale of the devastation has left survivors with nothing, waiting for the government's assistance to arrive.

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We had seen floods before, but never anything like this.