Beneath the flood – Geeta’s story of resilience

Geeta (13) remembers with a heavy heart the moment she and her brothers stood helplessly at the roadside, witnessing the Koshi river rapidly swallow their house. “I was surprised to see a huge black thing at the back of our house only to realise later that it was a huge hole in the wall. The flood swiftly swept away our house as we watched helplessly”, she recounts, showing the remnants of what once stood as their house.

On 28 September 2024, Geeta encountered an extraordinary event that she had never imagined in her wildest dreams. The Koshi river, that once flowed beside their house, suddenly started to swell and quickly started engulfing whatever came in its way. Geeta grew up in this house, and she had never experienced a flood of such massive scale. “I had seen the river swell a bit but not to the extent that it covered the highway,” she remarked. Her father Krishna (32) adds, “I have lived here all my life, but I do not remember such massive flooding ever.” On the morning of the flooding, Geeta’s father jolted her awake, urgency in his voice, as the river surged closer, having already crossed the nearby trees, almost 100 metres away. With her mother and brother absent from the house, Geeta, along with her father and the remaining brothers, tried to collect whatever they could in hopes of saving their belongings as they frantically moved them to higher ground. “We were only able to move some food items and a few utensils to safety with the help of our neighbours as the flood rushed to our house. We could not save most of our stuff and helplessly watched the Koshi river sweep them away. I was able to save three pairs of clothes and a handful of books that I had kept aside for studying. All my copies and other learning materials were washed away and buried under the sand. Luckily, my school uniform was kept in a sack after I had washed them so I could save them too. It was the same for my brothers’ belongings as well”, shares Geeta.  The family managed to relocate their one buffalo and a cow to safety, but unfortunately, the shed was swept away by the raging river.

Geeta is a seventh grader living in Sindhuli with her family, which includes her father, mother, two older brothers aged 16 and 15, and her younger brother who is 12. She is a registered child under the Child Sponsorship Programme of World Vision International Nepal. Her father works as a labourer on construction sites and her mother dedicates her time to managing the household. Her passion for cooking fuels her dream of becoming a chef in the future. “My best recipe is dal bhat and pickle (Pulse, Rice and Pickle). When I am not studying, I help my mother cook dinner,” says Geeta. They live a modest life on the banks of Koshi river and since the flood destroyed most of their belongings, including their kitchen and a cowshed, the family was left in despair, wishing for much-needed support. The flood had dumped sand in their house which made it impossible to live in. Hence, Geeta and the family took shelter at her uncle’s house, which is at a higher place, and have been living there while her father and brothers dug through the sand and cleaned the house.

“As I watched the water come towards us, I was frightened that it would cross the road, and everything would be submerged. Our kitchen hut was completely ruined and only the roof of the house where we lived was showing. I had thought the river would destroy both our houses and the water would stay like this forever and would not subside”, remembers Geeta. She adds, “I supposed we would have to stay at our uncle’s house from now on. We only had maize flour because there were no grains with us to eat.” 

In the aftermath of the disaster, WVI Nepal, working alongside the local government and Relief Nepal (WVI Nepal’s implementing partner), stepped in to assist families impacted by the floods. They provided essential food packages filled with rice, lentils, sugar, salt, cooking oil, beaten rice, and chickpeas to offer immediate support. Geeta’s family received the food package, providing them with essential support for several weeks.

Geeta loves playing the Kabaddi game with her best friends, Pratikshya and Manmaya. She showed an area filled with sand saying that it used to be a large ground with grass where they played. “We used to love swinging with the help of the prop roots of these trees nearby. Now, the sand has covered half of the tree, and we can no longer swing from the trees”, she says, pointing towards a large banyan tree. 

The flood not only destroyed houses but also damaged the sources of water in surrounding areas. The wells beside the Koshi river that provided water to the households were filled with sand and debris which caused the water supply to halt for days. Geeta’s family had to fetch drinking water in bottles from a faraway community until the N-24 Response project supported pipes to transfer water from another source. The water has resumed in Geeta’s and other households since then. 

“Now that the river has entered the community this year, I think the water will keep rising every year. But I have heard that making barrages can stop flooding like this,” she asserts with hope.

World Vision International (WVI) Nepal began addressing the needs of those impacted by floods and landslides in Rautahat and Sindhuli, supported by funding from the National Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund (NEPRF). Subsequently, WVI Nepal was awarded an additional grant from Start Fund Nepal through the project “Supporting the marginalized and the most vulnerable people to cope with flood and landslide with emergency Food Items (FI) and/or Non-Food Items (NFI) – N24 Nepal”. This project enabled the distribution of essential relief items, including 572 Non-Food Item shelter kits, 500 Food Packages, 700 Hygiene Kits, 700 Dignity Kits, 500 Kitchen Kits, and 550 packs of Super Flour as a nutritional supplement. The N24 Nepal project, implemented in the Rautahat and Sindhuli districts, positively affected 10,463 individuals, comprising of 2,506 boys, 2,266 girls, 2,853 women, 2,838 men and 207 people with disabilities. The initiative provided crucial assistance to those impacted by the floods, offering Psychosocial Support Orientations to 459 individuals, disseminating risk messaging via radio PSAs across both districts, and installing 9,000 metres of water pipes in Sindhuli district to restore access to drinking water.

Text and Photographs: Binod Thapa Magar/World Vision International Nepal