Floods and landslides kill 23 in Nepal

[senorpepr]

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Five days of incessant rain have caused heavy flooding and landslides in Nepal's southeastern and southwestern regions killing 23 people.

"Eight people were killed in a mudslide at Pyuthan district, seven in Ramechhap and eight in floods in Makwanpur district," a district official said Sunday.

A Home Ministry official said 34 districts had been affected, 13 of them seriously.

"The heavy flooding in over a dozen major Himalayan rivers have inundated several thousand acres (hectares) of farmland and has hit more than 100,000 people hard," an official of the Department of Irrigation and Flood Control said.

Heavy flooding of the Koshi river was threatening the India-built Koshi dam, which if it collapsed would pose serious danger to downstream villagers in Nepal, the Indian state of Bihar and to Bangladesh, an official said.

"The water level on the dam is rising and if it crosses the 700,000 cusec outflow it could be the regarded as above the danger mark," said Gokul Bahadur, a supervisor of the project.

The government, meanwhile, has deployed army and police personnel and local volunteers in flood affected districts to help bring villagers to safer areas.

Flood waters have inundated many highways in lowland tropical regions in the area, badly disrupting bus services, said Nepal Transport Operators Organisation official Bishal Mahaju.

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