Delay in recovery of dead bodies concerns monitoring committee

The dead bodies buried at Singati of Dolakha and Langtang, Mailung and Rasuwagadhi of Rasuwa district which were struck by the massive earthquake of April 25 and subsequent aftershocks have not yet been recovered.

It was found in course of the on-site monitoring by the sub-committee under the National Disaster Management, Monitoring and Direction Special Committee of the Legislature-Parliament that the dead bodies are yet to be taken out from the debris in the quake-hit northern remote and mountainous areas.

“The efforts made to take out corpses from the rubble in the far-flung areas, were found inadequate”, the monitoring subcommittee said, noting that “there were no presence of government and non-government bodies and human presence was also slim at local level due to psychological fear of earthquake.” It was stated that the dead body recovery bid saw further setback owing to remote hilly terrain; lack of transportation, competent human resource and coordination of information; and communications.

The monitoring subcommittee has underlined the need of effective excavation of the devastated tourism sites, residential houses and hotel buildings in Gorkha, Dhading, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha, among others.

Locals are still reeling from a sense of fear and terror at Rigaun, Lapa, Tipling, Sertung and Jharlang in the northern belt of Dhading with the complete destruction of their physical structures.

The subcommittee said that the areas were found to have been without human settlements during the monitoring and are in need of relocation to the secured places due to fear of landslide.

Likewise, the human settlements at Narayanthan, Gaira Bisauna, and Deupur VDC-2, Khatechaur of Kavre are also under the threat of dry landslide, which should also be shifted to secured area, the monitoring team recommended.

The government’s attention was drawn towards possible menace of landslides to human settlements in the northern mountainous area.

The subcommittee cautioned the government of risks posed to human settlements by the possible disruption of the Seti River in Suklagandaki municipality in Tanahun due to earthquake.

It seems that the alternative arrangement should immediately be put in place for the relocation of the vulnerable human settlements envisaging perspective plan of resettlement.

The parliamentary committee had undertaken onsite monitoring in 14 earthquake-ravaged districts and other affected sites through the subcommittee.

The monitoring subcommittee in its report urged the government to keep the operation of road and communication connectivity disrupted due to the natural disaster.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

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