Nepal Flood Survivors Lack Space Even to Mourn Their Dead

Eight days after the Bhotekoshi floods, families of missing victims have begun performing funeral rites with effigies made from kusha grass because they have found no clues about their loved ones.

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After we could not find any space to stay during the mourning period, we came here. We managed to get a room here.

The floods swept away not only family members but also the homes where survivors would normally observe mourning rituals. Victims who travelled to Kathmandu seeking shelter have struggled to find space at public facilities.

Nirajan Poudel of Nuwakot lost his father, mother, uncle, aunt and his cousin, his uncle’s daughter, in the August 26 disaster. He and another cousin performed the rites for all five using kusha effigies at the Kiriyaputri Bhawan at Rudramati Mahadev Temple in Tarakeshwar.

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The entire country is currently in mourning. To help the relatives of the victims, we opened this Kiriyaputri Bhawan after the floods.

The temple and its mourning facility remain under construction. The management committee opened the building after flood victims requested somewhere to carry out the rituals, despite the unfinished work. Eight groups are now staying there, each having lost three to five family members in the Rasuwa floods. Social activist Sudarshan Chapagain said there was no room for another family.

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There is no space to accommodate even one more mourner family.

The nearby Gupteshwar Mahadev Temple has also filled all eight rooms in its Kiriyaputri Bhawan. Its management committee erected tents and created six additional rooms as more families arrived. The facilities offer shelter during mourning, but construction delays and limited funds have left many survivors without a place to grieve.

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Now we do not have any room available until the current groups complete their mourning.