How to Tackle an Act of God?
Astory of misery unfolds in Nepal every year during the rainy season. Generally, these misfortunes do not affect the lives of the people of Kathmandu. The devastating natural fury that hit Okhaldhunga in the east on 6 July was ignored, as the capital was engrossed by the unfolding political drama between the Prime Minister and the Opposition.
Incessant monsoon rains on the 19, 20 and 21 July, however, hit much closer to home. They wreaked havoc over hills and Tarai of Central Nepal and claimed above 2000 lives (as of 26 July). Significantly, the extended cloudburst was centered in the very area where the nation´s primary infrastructure is located — the Kulekhani reservoir and dam, and the main road arteries leading up to Kathmandu.
Though the whole region eastern Nepal was affected, the monsoon system appeared to be particularly active over the headwaters region of Rapti, Kulekhani and Malekhu rivers -west of Kathmandu. So intense was the downpour that between the mornings of 19 and 21 July about 40 million cubic meter of water was replenished in the Kulekhani reservoir, Filling its 73 million cubic meters of live storage. For the first time in several years water spilled over from Indra Sarovar, the reservoir.
The floods that were unleashed smashed piers, scoured abutments and washed-off decks of more than eight bridges along the two highways to the capital. Large sect-ions of the highways subsided, and it will probably take at least a year for normalcy to return.