Flood enters homes in Pokhara after wall collapses due to heavy rain

Continuous rainfall since Saturday night caused the Kahunkhola river in Pokhara to overflow, breaking a wall and sending floodwater into homes. Areas like Kahunkhola Bazaar, Shubhakamana Tole, and Dhalke Bridge in Pokhara Metropolitan City-13 were affected, with floodwater and mud entering houses. One house was also damaged by riverbank erosion.

According to Kaski police spokesperson DSP Hari Bahadur Basnet, a two-room mud house belonging to 51-year-old Deepa Lama near Dhalke Bridge was severely damaged by the river. Landslides also damaged homes in some wards of Pokhara-18, Pokhara-20, and Annapurna Rural Municipality. Thankfully, no human casualties have been reported so far.

Ward Chairperson of Pokhara-13, Kiran Baral, said the damage occurred after a wall collapsed upstream, causing the river to change its course. Efforts are underway to stabilize the riverbank and place wire mesh around the damaged house.

Kahunkhola splits into two paths from Shubhakamana Tole—one flows east to Vijapur River and the other south to an irrigation canal. Local Congress leader Deepak Gurung and his relatives had developed plots in the area, building a retaining wall that narrowed the irrigation canal.

Because the canal became narrow, water couldn’t flow properly and flooded the homes in Shubhakama Tole on Saturday night. The old retaining wall built around 1981 couldn’t handle the pressure and collapsed. As a result, all the river’s water flowed in one direction, flooding nearby houses. Previously, the Kahunkhola used to join the canal from the left side, before the wall collapsed.