Still reeling from a disastrous monsoon season, Nepal has been hit with unseasonal downpours that have dumped more rain on rice crops that were ready for harvest.
More than 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours in parts of western Nepal, which has been the worst affected so far as a late-monsoon depression in the Bay of Bengal was swept into the Himalaya by a westerly system.
The Indian state of Uttarakhand and Nepal’s Far-Western Province on both sides of the Mahakali River have been badly affected by floods, landslides and submerged rice fields.
The border Mahakali River reached record-high levels on Tuesday, destroying roads and bridges.
Nepal received 15% more rain than average this monsoon, which ended on 11 October, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The increased precipitation including in Manang valley in Nepal’s rain shadow brought with it flashfloods that caused major damage in seven hydropower plants and Nepal’s most expensive project for supplying water to Kathmandu Melamchi Water Supply.
Except in the landslide-hit areas, farmers across Nepal had been encouraged by a healthy monsoon and were looking forward to a bumper rice harvest. Early reports said standing crops were either submerged, or destroyed right across Nepal.
Many roads in the country have been blocked due to floods from the continuous rain, including the Butwal-Bardaghat section of the East-West Highway. Water levels in the Mahakali and Karnali rivers have risen to dangerous levels, putting riverside settlements at risk, with some villages on the banks inundated.
Two hundred houses in the Bhimdatta and Dodhara Chandani municipalities near the Indian border in Far-Western Province are reported to have been flooded.
According to the Department of Water and Meteorology, 196 out of 225 rainfall measurement centers in the country have recorded heavy rain in the past few days.
Senior meteorologist of the department, Pratibha Manandhar explains: “The low-pressure systems in central India and the Bay of Bengal moving north and the westerly winds becoming active is the reason we are experiencing heavy rainfall.”
Generally, anything more than 150mm of rain within 24 hours is considered to be very heavy precipitation. In the Far-western Province, Dadeldhura has already recorded 211mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours, Dipayal received 166mm, Ghorahi 133mm, and Bhairawa 112mm.
In Nepal, monsoon rains usually stop by the end of September, as the prevailing winds switch direction to blow in from the west. Climate experts are surprised by just how erratic this year’s monsoon has been.
Water expert Madhukar Upadhya writes on his Twitter account: ‘As soon as we were saying that monsoon has ended, I find it surprising to see such high levels of rain, even capable of causing loss of life and property.’
However, Manandhar from the Department of Water and Meteorology says that this kind of post-monsoon period is not unprecedented. She says: “There are weather variations from year to year, so it is not surprising to see rains so late into the season. Usually we get post-monsoon rains when the monsoon itself has heavy precipitation.”
The Department predicts more rain till Wednesday evening especially in Lumbini, Karnali, the Far Western Province, and in many places in Province 1, and gradually diminishing by the end of the week as the westerlies hold sway. However, a few places are still expected to see thunderstorms, strong winds, and heavy rainfall.
This untimely rain has and will continue to affect the country’s rice harvest. Madhav Prasad Poudel from the Department of Agriculture, says, “Unseasonal rain like this affects both standing crops and also those that have been cut and are left in the fields to dry. The water makes even the straw rot.”
Although the Met Department forecast rain, the information did not reach farmers. Poudel adds that the rain has affected the paddy harvest adversely, but the exact damage has not yet been determined.
Sitaram Chaudhary, a farmer from Dhangadi, said that the floods have severely affected the quality of paddy, rice, and straw and even vegetable farms.
The government had been predicting records harvests of rice this year because of the favorable monsoon, but this week’s deluge has laid waste to those hopes. This also puts tens of thousands of farmers at the risk of food insecurity.
Rice is grown in over 1.4 million hectares in Nepal. Last year, the country produced over 5 million metric tons of paddy, but still imported about Rs51 billion worth of rice to meet growing demand.
With this week’s late monsoon floods and unexpected rain, the 2021 harvest is likely to be below targets.
from Nepali Times https://ift.tt/3G0Uk20
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