Chandra Bahadur Rokka Magar and his neighbours, the residents of Tikapur Municipality, ward number 5 of Kailali district, face the wrath of floods every year.

Magar says, “Our village is adjacent to Karnali River, so we face flood very often. In some years the floods are more disastrous. In the year 2014, flood swept away all of our belongings and it took more than a year to recover from it.”

Magar and his neighbours had lost their standing crops to floods. The stored seeds and food grains got soaked with flood waters. And due to stagnant water and prolonged rainy days, they were unable to dry the seeds and food grains on time and lost them completely.

Thanks to a government river engineering project, from the last three years, they have not faced such disastrous floods. A dyke constructed along the river bank has protected the village from flooding. However, last year the floods damaged most of the dyke and the villagers are worried of flood occurrence this year.

Magar says, “If the government does not repair the dyke on time, we’ll need to be prepared to face the floods again.”
Learning from the previous flood damage and with the guidance of Nepal Flood Resilience Project (NFRP), Magar and his neighbours have planned to plant flood tolerant rice variety this season and have already constructed raised grain storage.

Magar says, “Even flood level is not always disastrous, we face flood regularly. Our seeds and grains used to get damaged every year.” He adds, “So with the guidance of NFRP staff, we have constructed raised grain storage. I can store 12 quintal of grain (1 quintal equals to 100kg) in it, safe from flood.”
Magar and his neighbours have built 6×6 square feet concrete platform for storage, 4.5 feet above the ground surface. It can store 12 to 14 quintal of grains and seeds.