Koshi river floods Nepal and Bihar

[Piso Mojado]

On August 18, the Koshi river burst its banks in Nepal just north of the border with India, 250 miles south-east of Kathmandu. There was bad flooding in Nepal's Sunsari district: four villages were inundated, hundreds of families lost their homes. South of the border, in India's Bihar state, at least seven thousand are and millions are homeless. The river jumped its banks into a channel that had been dry for a century, a channel without levees or protective embankments. Fifty years of flood control work undone overnight! Each country blames the other for this disaster; their river treaty will have to be renegotiated.

Eyewitness report from the Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/parvinder-singh-bihar-is-a-heartbreaking-tragedy-but-world-has-been-looking-the-other-way-915716.html

Photo gallery from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/28/india.india?picture=337041945

Interview with Dipak Gyawali, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation:

http://www.kantipuronline.com/interview.php?&nid=159078