By Thin Lei Win

The massive flooding in eastern India has been widely reported, but it has been no less devastating for many villagers in Nepal where the deluge has swamped the country's "breadbasket" and cut off the crucial East-West Highway.

Aid agencies say the flooding of Nepal's fertile Eastern Terai region spells disaster for the whole country.

The crisis began when the Koshi River, which flows from Nepal into India, broke through an embankment last month, and changed its course, flooding villages on its path. The gap in the crumbling embankment has now widened to 1.6km.

The population in Eastern Terai are mostly farmers, who provide rice and vegetables for both local consumption and other parts of the country. Not only did the flooding destroy their harvests it also damaged the highway that runs the length of the country and is vital for transporting produce to other regions.

"The road is really the lifeblood of the country," says Denise Barrett, Nepal director for aid agency International Rescue Committee. "At the moment, the highway is only passable by boat, creating two halves of the country."

"Flood-induced crops failures (in this area) have a double effect: the flood affected population is at risk of food insecurity and other parts of the country relying on food from this region will have to look elsewhere."

At least 60,000 people have been displaced and crops worth over 300 million rupees (over $4 million) destroyed, since the river burst through the retaining wall. And there are fears that the fragile embankment will break in more places, flooding an even greater area.

While the figures may seem miniscule compared to the devastation Koshi has wrought in India - 3 million displaced and counting - for a country of less than 30 million people already struggling with poverty and political instability, the impact may well be just as severe.

Aid agencies in Nepal say the displaced may have to live in temporary shelters for months and some may have to be permanently resettled elsewhere. Some agricultural land may also have been so badly damaged that it can't be farmed any more.

Another major worry for aid agencies is security. There were reports of looting in the first days of the disaster, but the bigger concern is the ethnic tensions in the area. Eastern Terai has been a hotbed of political instability in recent years, marked by clashes between ethnic Madheshi separatists and Nepal's security forces. Aid workers fear the disaster could stoke the regional strife.

SECURITY AND DISEASE FEARS

At its worst, the water level reached roof lines. While it has receded in some areas to waist level or below, access is still difficult because of the damage to the highway, the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) says.

This has made it difficult for aid workers to make a detailed damage assessment. Their problems have also been compounded by turbulent weather and an intermittent telecommunications system - an underground optical fibre was also swept away in the flood.

Many of the displaced are staying in 28 temporary shelters (mostly schools and college buildings) in the eastern parts of Sunsari. The nearby Saptari district has also seen an influx of flood survivors.

Some shelters in Sunsari are housing over 2,000 people each. Inadequate sanitation has raised fears of disease outbreaks - one camp with almost 1,500 people only has one toilet and bathroom. Already, local media reports say five people have died of diarrhoea.

"Eye disorders such as conjunctivitis are also threatening to surface in some camps," the Red Cross says. "Children in particular have become vulnerable to pneumonia due to the cold."

A government report says repairing the embankments will take at least six months. According to the U.N., the 1.6km-gap rules out the possibility of "plugging" the embankment in the immediate future. Instead, repair works will focus on preventing any further collapse of the breached banks.

In 1954, Nepal and India signed The Koshi Treaty, under which India is responsible for maintenance and repair of the embankments, which lie in Nepal.

"When this river was done this way with embankments, it was supposed to be only a temporary measure," Barrett says.

"Now more than 50 years after the signing of the Treaty that gave India rights of access and control, they've been patching and reinforcing these embankments which were never supposed to serve as long-term water controls measures."

Now the governments of Nepal and India will need to determine how to work with a river that has changed its course.

As politicians wrangle over who is to blame for the flooding - some reports say it was the lack of maintenance as much as the monsoon that caused the deluge - Nepal's flood victims face the prospect of spending a very bleak winter in temporary shelters.

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