'No land left at all': Nepal flood survivors detail a transformed landscape

'No land left at all': Nepal flood survivors detail a transformed landscape.

Key points

• The United Nations appealed on Friday for $50 million to support more than 84, 000 residents in Nepal affected by the disaster.
• Header image: Individuals stand next to damaged buildings after the deadly flash floods and a mudslide, in Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal on September 4, 2026. -Reuters.
• For some victims, such as 47-year-old Rawendra Dawadi, headteacher of Trishuli Bazaar Secondary School, the flood was worse than a powerful 2015 earthquake which additionally devastated the region.
• Pabitra Lamsal had lived with her family in Dhunge Bazaar, in the Nuwakot district, for over 40 years.
• "The river is flowing right where our houses used to stand, " the 45-year-old woman remarked, waiting at a administration food distribution centre in Nuwakot.

Individuals say their homes, rice paddy fields were swept away by floodwaters; UN has appealed for $50m. AFP Published September 4, 2026 Updated September 4, 2026 07: 02pm.

Sheltering with relatives or in temporary camps, survivors of devastating floods in Nepal say they can no longer rebuild their homes after the landscape was violently transformed, leaving them focused simply on survival.

But the family's two homes and her rice paddy fields have vanished, swept away by the floodwaters.

"The river is flowing right where our houses used to stand, " the 45-year-old woman remarked, waiting at a administration food distribution centre in Nuwakot. "There is no land left at all."

Along with the nine members of her family, she does not know where they will live.

"You can't think straight in a situation like this. We've rented two rooms for shelter, but we don't have a stove to cook on, so we're eating at a relative's homes. The river swept away all the funds we had."

She leaves with a bag of rice, a packet of noodles, oil and biscuits.

Nearby, gutted buildings, half-buried trucks, and mountains of mud bear witness to the violence of the floodwaters that swept everything away in their path. Army helicopters, deployed for rescue operations, fly overhead at regular intervals.

After a vast glacial mountain collapse high above on the China-Nepal border crashed into the river below, has killed more than 1, 300 individuals and left more than 5, 600 missing throughout both countries, the devastating August 26 flood.

Meanwhile, the United Nations appealed on Friday for $50 million to support more than 84, 000 residents in Nepal affected by the disaster.

Sumita Tamang, queueing for food supplies, remarked above all she wanted to find her missing husband, from whom she has heard nothing since the flood.

"I've looked for him everywhere, but I still have no news of him. I hope he's out there somewhere and will come home, " the 33-year-old remarked, her voice breaking through tears.

"But I have absolutely no idea where he is. It's been nine days."

For some victims, such as 47-year-old Rawendra Dawadi, headteacher of Trishuli Bazaar Secondary School, the flood was worse than a powerful 2015 earthquake which additionally devastated the region. "This disaster is far worse, " Dawadi remarked.

"The school was completely destroyed by the earthquake, but we rebuilt it. Back then, we still had the land; this time, we've lost the land as well as the building."

Dawadi remarked he needed a new site before the school could be rebuilt. "This place is no longer safe, " he informed AFP.

In the courtyard of Shree Chandrajyoti Secondary School. It is sheltering hundreds of displaced individuals from Nuwakot district, residents queue for hot meals.

One of them, 72-year-old Krishna Lal Chitrakar, remarked the land in Devighat where his home and those of his three sons once stood "has been turned into a riverbank".

"My father and four generations of my family lived in this spot, " remarked the man wearing a traditional Nepali topi hat.

He is staying with 11 family members in a classroom where multiplication tables are posted on the walls. Families sleep on school benches with barely any belongings.

While his wife, additionally in her 70s, wipes her eyes behind him, he sits silently. One of his daughters sobs uncontrollably. "We have lost everything, " he remarked. "But everyone is alive. Should I be happy or sad?"

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Taken together, the developments around ' No land left at all' : Nepal flood survivors detail a transformed landscape point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.