Earthquake survivors who waited years for safer homes were living near the river when the 2026 Bhotekoshi flood swept their settlements away, exposing unfinished reconstruction and the rising cost of climate risks in the Himalayas.

Chhegu Tamang has been uprooted twice. In 2015, the devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people across Nepal destroyed his home in Rasuwa district. Authorities later declared his original village unsafe and promised relocation. Years of waiting left him and hundreds of other families in makeshift shelters close to the Bhotekoshi river. On 26 August 2026, that river rose in a catastrophic flood triggered by a rock-and-ice avalanche high on Langtang Lirung near the Nepal-Tibet border. The settlement at Khalte was swept away. More than a dozen of Tamang’s relatives died. He lost his home, his land and much of his remaining family.

He first sheltered at Shivalaya Basic School in Uttargaya Rural Municipality, then was moved to a holding centre at Pipaltar in Bidur, Nuwakot. “We have already been moved three times since the flood,” he said. “Instead of being shifted around like a cat switching its sleeping spots, it would be better if we were provided with a permanent settlement.”

His experience is not isolated. It sits at the centre of a larger challenge for Nepal: how to resettle survivors of the Bhotekoshi disaster without repeating the failures that left earthquake victims exposed a decade later.

Unfinished Promises after the 2015 Earthquake

After the 2015 quake, the National Reconstruction Authority offered affected families two main options. Those willing to move to higher ground above Tiru village could receive Rs 300,000 (about $2,250 at current rates) to build a house. Others could take the same grant and buy land in a neighbouring district or municipality. Families too poor to top up the grant were told the government would purchase land for them.

In ward 1 of Uttargaya Rural Municipality, 630 households had been displaced. Some managed to buy plots in Bogatitar and Shanti Bazar. But 257 households, including Tamang’s, could not. Officials inspected land in the Naubise fields and later bought 25 ropani and four ana (roughly 1.28 hectares) in Pahirebesi, intending to give each household about 127 square metres. The National Reconstruction Authority was dissolved and responsibility passed to the Ministry of Urban Development. For six or seven years, families travelled repeatedly to Singha Durbar in Kathmandu seeking action. “Nobody listened to us,” Tamang said.

With nowhere else to go, they built temporary huts in Khalte using tarpaulins and later corrugated sheets supplied by government agencies and organisations. The settlement stood only about 100 metres from the river. Preliminary estimates suggest around 400 people there were caught in the August flood. Local officials say roughly 75 per cent of Khalte residents are missing or dead. “Because the government failed to move us to a safe place in time, a huge loss occurred this year,” Tamang said.

Scale of the 2026 Disaster

The flood devastated settlements across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, with damage extending further downstream. Official figures put the death toll at more than 1,450, with several thousand still missing. Around 7,570 houses were completely destroyed, the vast majority in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has reported that roughly 1.6 million people in 15 local units were directly affected. Reconstruction and recovery needs are estimated at $4.7–5 billion.

Survivors such as Purna Bahadur Ghale, a 43-year-old ward member from Khalte who lost seven relatives, describe the same pattern of delayed promises. “I must have gone to Singha Durbar more than 100 times and asked officials to move us to a safe place. But they kept saying, ‘Yes, yes.’” His family had already moved once after the earthquake. Now he is at a holding centre and wants only safe housing and temporary livelihood support. “We are in mourning. We have nothing. The flood has brought us down to zero.”

Lessons From Past Relocations

Nepal has relocated communities after previous disasters, with mixed results. After the 1993 floods that killed about 1,500 people, a model settlement was built along the Bagmati River in Sarlahi for landless victims. Many later returned to their original areas because farming and social networks remained there. Following the 2015 earthquake, the entire Laprak settlement in Gorkha was moved to Gupsipakha, where the Non-Resident Nepali Association built 602 houses. Dozens of other high-risk settlements were also relocated.

Former home secretary Bhoj Raj Pokharel has cautioned that physical relocation alone is insufficient. “If displaced people are taken far away from their old settlements, they cannot maintain their livelihoods or access to education, health services, markets, employment and farming,” he said. Former prime minister and urban planner Baburam Bhattarai has warned against uprooting Himalayan communities whose lifestyles and livelihoods are rooted in specific mountain environments. Moving people long distances, he argued, is neither scientific nor sustainable given the growing risk of glacial and monsoon-related disasters from Taplejung to Darchula.

Government Plans for Resettlement

The National Planning Commission has begun a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment covering productive and social sectors, infrastructure, climate and environment, and macroeconomic impacts. A master plan for settlement development is expected. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development is prioritising roads and bridges so that affected areas can be reconnected before permanent housing decisions are finalised.

Officials are classifying families according to the extent of loss. Those who lost everything are to be relocated to new safe sites. Where some land remains viable, families may receive grants to rebuild in place. Possible sites under review include the Trishuli hydropower project camp and forest areas near Khalte. Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, has said risk assessments are under way and a relocation plan will be made public soon. Some communities may be moved to other districts if vacant land can be identified.

Madhav Prasad Aryal, chairman of Uttargaya Rural Municipality, noted that efforts to move earthquake-displaced families from Khalte to Pahirebesi were incomplete when the flood struck; half of the proposed site itself was later damaged. “Now we have to look for a safe place elsewhere.”

Livelihoods and Climate Reality

Experts and survivors stress that housing must be paired with livelihood support. Many of the twice-displaced families were already among the poorest. Temporary allowances and grants for housing have been discussed, but longer-term economic recovery remains uncertain. The disaster has also sharpened calls for climate justice. Nepal contributes little to global emissions yet faces intensifying Himalayan hazards – glacial lake outburst floods, rock-ice avalanches and extreme monsoon events – linked to rapid warming.

International partners, including UNDP and Habitat for Humanity, have highlighted the need for “building back better” in safer locations while recognising that communities value proximity to ancestral land, markets and social ties.

For families like Tamang’s and Ghale’s, the immediate demand is straightforward: permanent, safe settlement and a period of basic support so they can rebuild lives rather than simply move from one temporary shelter to the next. A decade after the earthquake, the flood has shown that unfinished reconstruction is not only an administrative failure – it is a life-and-death vulnerability in a warming mountain landscape.

Focus keyphrase: Nepal earthquake flood survivors resettlement

Tags: Nepal floods 2026, 2015 earthquake reconstruction, Bhotekoshi flood, climate displacement Himalayas, disaster resettlement Nepal, Rasuwa Nuwakot, glacial avalanche, Post-Disaster Needs Assessment, Himalayan climate risk, twice-displaced communities,