Why Nepal’s infrastructure keeps getting devoured by rivers

Our current systems fail because planners keep aiming for a calm middle ground that no longer exists.

Look at the Bhotekoshi riverbed in Northern Rasuwa. On the morning of August 26, a sudden 10-metre wall of water swept through Timure and Syabrubesi, destroying many settlements, tearing apart the customs infrastructure, ripping down police posts, damaging hydropower facilities, and snapping newly completed bridges along our primary trade route. The official reports across Kathmandu ministries will inevitably cite an ‘unprecedented hydrological surge/event’. But when an event hits the same landscape more than once in a decade, calling it a ‘surprise’ is just poor planning and shortsightedness.