Emergency Flood Response by RDC in Rautahat

Objective: To support with the basic emergency materials to the affected families and individual’s aftermath of the flood emergency soonest as possible  

Rautahat district, located in the southern region of Nepal, is highly prone to monsoon related disasters, including floods and waterborne diseases. These natural calamities severely impact the vulnerable communities, causing loss of life, damage to property, and disruption of livelihoods. Continuous rainfall from 27 September, 2024 had raised water level in the Bagmati and Lal Bakaiya rivers, resulting massive flood in Rautahat district. Key municipalities like Rajpur, Gaur, Rajdevi, Madhaw Narayan, Paroha, Gadhimai, Yamunamai and Durga Bhagawati were severely affected whereas Chnadrapur, Ishnath, Gajura, Fatuwabijaypur, Maulapur and Dewahi gonahi are moderately affected. Stakeholders at Durga Bhagwati municipality has already supported to the affected HH’s with puffed rice, beaten rice and dalmot which could be consumed at the single time only. Hence, they approached to the RDC Nepal for the emergency support to those affected HH’s.

Since Rautahat district is highly prone to massive flood during monsoon season, there is an urgent need for comprehensive preparedness to mitigate the risks and enhance the resiliency of the affected HH’s. Considering to this, we enhanced the procurement of temporary shelter kits and hygiene kits and stored it to our stock for urgent support. Moreover, we kept the vendor stand by following LTA (Long Term Agreement) with them for the food items.

We, the response team were completely aware and updated with the situation of the flood. As soon as the letter received from the Durga Bhagwati Municipality requesting on 28 September evening for support, we overviewed with the preliminary assessment of the situation over there and then processed for the support. We got the name list of 50 affected HH’s from the office of the municipality which were verified by the volunteers before the distribution and we marched for the support on 29 September with the following items:

Words from Stakeholders:

“Among 753 local government office, Durga Bhagwati is one of the highly flood prone areas where about 2000 HH’s have been affected every year due to flood among which about 400 HH’s belong to the ward no. 5, Badaharwa. Although we have tried our best to support at least ready to eat food items to the affected HH’s, however we were not able to cover all of them with adequate support. In this situation, the support provided from the Rural Development Center (RDC) Nepal in coordination with the Oxfam in Nepal has played a significant role to provide relief to the affected HH’s. I appreciate the both of the organization for the humanitarian task done by them. Further I request if more support could be provided for the rest of the affected HH’s.”

• Sambhu Kumar Singh (Chairperson of Durga Bhagwati Municipality)

Key Acheivements: 

·     50 affected and displaced HH’s were supported with the ready to food items during flood.

·     50 displaced HH’s were supported with the temporary shelter items who are forced to live under open sky

·     50 families were supported with the emergency hygiene kits to maintain their dignity during emergency.