At least 10 people have died and 6 are missing after heavy monsoon rainfall once again triggered landslides in Nepal.
According to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), 9 people died after a landslide destroyed a house in Waling Municipality, Syangja district on 24 September.
Also in Syangja district, 2 houses were destroyed leaving one person missing after a landslide in Kaligandaki Rural Municipality on the same day.
Meanwhile 5 people are reported missing after 2 houses were buried by a landslide in Rambha Rural Municipality in Palpa District, also on 24 September. In a separate incident, one person died when a landslide destroyed a house in the same municipality.
Deadly landslides struck in Palpa District in June this year.
Record Rainfall
Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) reported heavy rainfall in several parts of the country from 22 September. In a 24 hour period to 23 September, 136.2 mm of rain was recorded at Kankai in Jhapa district. The following day 239 mm of rain fell in Danda, Nawalpur district. Semari in Pasasi district recorded 168 mm of rain in 24 hours to 25 September.
DHM reported that Pokhara in Gandaki Pradesh Province in central Nepal has already broken the yearly rainfall record. The Pokhara Airport weather station recorded 5,097.3 mm of rain from 0 1 January to 21 September, 2020, beating the previous yearly record set in 1998 when the station recorded 4,879 mm of rain from 01 January to 31 December.
Pokhara is situated about 30 km north east of Waling Municipality in Syangja district.
