Bad omen

Timely preparation is a must to prevent a repeat of the yearly water-induced disasters.

Heavy and days-long rainfalls wreaking havoc, leaving hundreds of people dead and causing huge property losses is a recurrent phenomenon in Nepal every monsoon. This year, due to lackluster preparations, these destructions could visit us sooner. Nature has started unfolding its fury a month before the monsoon, which generally runs from the second week of June (to the third week of September). A swollen stream in Kavre swept away a woman on Tuesday. People in Kavre and surrounding areas that were badly hit by landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains in September last year are facing hardships this year too. Displaced people have languished in tarps for a year in the district. Separately, construction work to widen and upgrade some major highways has gathered momentum in the past couple of months. But work on key highways such as Naubishe-Muglin and Narayanghat-Butwal roads are unlikely to be completed before the monsoon. And incomplete construction could create chaos on the busy, grubby highways.