How a low-cost early warning system across the Nepal-India border saves lives every monsoon

Every year, residents of Bhagwatipur in southern Nepal struggle to sleep during the monsoon. Between June and September, this village of around 500 households on the banks of the Ratu river in the Mahottari district lives in constant fear of floods.

“It’s very hard for me to remember any monsoon when we didn’t lose any person or property to the Ratu floods,” says Arun Yadav, a resident of Bhagwatipur. But, he says, the 2022 monsoon season was “an exception”.