On Saturday, officials said nine people, five of them from the same family, were killed in landslides triggered by heavy rains in Nepal. Three children were among the dead, according to the National Disaster Relief and Reduction and Management Agency (NRDDMA).
All five residents of a house in Gulmi district, about 250km west of Kathmandu, were killed when a landslide washed away their home. Reuters It has been reported. NRDDMA spokesperson Dizan Bhattarai said the bodies, including those of the two children, were recovered.
The number of people killed in Nepal by landslides, floods and lightning strikes since mid-June now stands at at least 35.
Experts fear this number could rise as annual monsoon rains are expected to continue until mid-September.
Every year, hundreds of people die in Nepal from landslides and explosive floods. Landslides are becoming more common in the country due to its fragile and rapidly changing geology.
Between 2011 and 2021, the country experienced more than 2,400 landslides, killing 1,384 people.
These incidents also block major highways for hours, causing millions of dollars in economic damage each year.
Deaths are caused by a combination of natural factors, such as heavy rainfall, flooding and soil fragility, and anthropogenic factors, such as the development of large-scale infrastructure in high-risk areas.
Some researchers say past landslides, including those triggered by earthquakes, may have made the area more vulnerable to future landslides.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed about 9,000 people, injured thousands more and damaged or destroyed more than 600,000 buildings in Kathmandu and nearby cities.
“Since the magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal in 2015, landslide hazards have increased dramatically. Landslide hazards remain high in many areas years after the earthquake,” the researchers wrote in a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications. Environmental Earth Sciences.
“The earthquake triggered landslides mainly in the central-eastern region. “Landslide hazards in the 14 worst-affected regions are still much higher than they were on the day of the 2015 earthquake,” they said.
Experts call for a number of measures to reduce the country’s death toll, including reducing settlements in areas at risk of landslides, developing early warning systems and conducting slope stabilization activities.
