सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Birgunj. More than 200 bighas of cultivable land in four wards of Birgunj Metropolitan City have been submerged due to lack of drainage of rainwater. Two hundred bighas of cultivable land in wards 17, 24, 26, and 28 of Birgunj Metropolitan City have been submerged.
The fields are still filled with water accumulated during the rainy season. Farmers are not going to plant crops. Farmer Bhagirath Prasad Kurmi of Birgunj Metropolitan City-26 expressed his grief that he has not been able to plant crops due to inundation of cultivable land for the past six months.
‘Since the rainy season, water has accumulated in the cultivable land, and even rice could not be harvested due to the accumulated water. Winter has begun. “We have not been able to cultivate wheat due to the flood,” he said.
Farmer Kurmi’s 15 acres of land used for cultivating rice and other crops has become unproductive due to the flood. “Many agencies have been concerned about the problem of flooding. However, our problem remains the same, at least the flooding problem could have been ended before the rainy season,” he said.
Sudama Kumar Dwivedi, a farmer from Birgunj Mahanagar-24 Bahuari, is also facing the same problem. He complained that he could not harvest the paddy planted in 21 acres of fields due to the lack of proper drainage of water during the rainy season.
‘We had planted paddy in Asar. We could not even bring in a handful of paddy. If this situation continues, how will we feed our children and family?’ He expressed concern.
Recently, with the construction of the Parwanipur-Integrated Checkpoint six-lane road, the Postal Highway, the Alau Eighteen-lane road, the Integrated Checkpoint and the dry port, the natural flow of water has been blocked, resulting in the problem of flooding.
In the past, water was being drained from Alau. However, after the construction of various types of infrastructure, the flow of water naturally stopped, causing flooding in farmers’ fields and houses.
Anil Tiwari of Bahuari, Birgunj Metropolitan-24, said that not only the cultivable land but also the houses of the residents of all four wards are facing the problem of water logging.
‘Various houses in all four wards have been flooded,’ he said, ‘The locals are facing the problem of having to walk to their homes in three to four feet of stagnant water.’ It is said that 20 houses in Mahanagar-26, 35 houses in Ward No. 24 and more than a dozen houses in Ward No. 25 were submerged.
Pradeep Patel, acting ward chairman of Birgunj Mahanagar-26, said that the problem of flooding has arisen due to the natural blockage of water drainage due to the construction of roads and other infrastructure.
‘There was no such problem in the past. The rainwater would have dried up by Asoj-Kartik, but now there is a doubt as to how long the problem of flooding will continue due to the lack of water drainage,’ he said.
Birgunj Mahanagar had dug a three-foot deep drain from Alau to Shivaji Mill after the problem of flooding was observed in agricultural land last Kartik. However, locals said that the problem remained even after the temporary drain was filled in.
‘We had tried to temporarily drain the water, which was three feet wide, by using a dozer for a kilometer from Alau to Shivaji’s mill. However, the current problem has arisen because residents near their homes have dug drains due to the lack of a humpipe, he said.
According to him, the problem could be solved in the long term if there was about one kilometer of humpipe.
Kundan Thakur, sub-engineer of the planning department of Birgunj Metropolitan City, said, “Last October, we tried to temporarily drain the water by digging a three-foot drain with a dozer. But due to the obstruction of the locals, the water is not being drained now,’ he said.
Parsa Chief District Officer Ganesh Aryal informed that coordination is being done with the three levels of government to solve the problem of flooding seen in four different wards of Birgunj metropolis.
‘We have already conducted on-site monitoring in the flooded areas,’ he said, ‘Efforts are ongoing to solve the problem by coordinating with the concerned bodies.’
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