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A weather station has been set up in Beni, the headquarters of Myagdi district in Gandaki Province.

The Hydrology and Meteorology Office, Pokhara established the weather station in coordination with the Beni Municipality.

The Office said information on climate change and weather would be available easily and on time from the weather station.

Office Chief Sujan Subedi said information on temperature, precipitation and wind speed would be promptly available by means of the automatic instruments installed at the weather station and this data would be stored.

"Weather-related information available from the automatic instruments installed at the station would be constantly updated and stored in the central server. Arrangements have been made to disseminate the information via the website connected to the server" said Subedi, adding that the stored and archived weather data and information would be useful for disaster preparedness and risk reduction as well as for study and research.

The previous weather station at Beni was closed after it was destroyed during the skirmish between the then Maoist rebels and the security forces on March 20, 2004.

The Beni Municipality has provided the land for establishing the new weather station at its office premises.

There are 26 weather stations, including the one in Beni, in Gandaki province. Automatic equipment is installed at 12 of the 26 weather stations.

The Melamchi Water Supply Board has suspended the water supply from the Melamchi River in Sindhupalchowk to the Kathmandu Valley beginning today.

Board Executive Director Ratna Lamichhane said that with the flood in the river, it turned murky, leading to the closure of the water supply to the Valley. The supply will be restored once the rain thwarts.

Though earlier, the Board had planned to halt the supply from June 13, the schedule was postponed as no significant rains occurred amidst this. Later, the Board also prepared for closing the project last Friday and the supplies continued as water flow in the river did not increase as it was estimated, it is said

The government regularizes the water supplies from Melamchi during the monsoon bearing in mind its possible consequences on its headworks and other structures.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, this year monsoon entered the country on June 10, three days earlier than the tentative date and generally exits on October 2.

The Project management consultants and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) were advising the Board to halt the supplies to save the project's structures from the monsoon-related hazards. "We decided to close it after the river waters turned muddy."

As many as 7,000 people will likely be affected due to the landslides and floods this year in Tanahun district, according to the Emergency Response Plan, 2024 prepared by the District Administration Office, Tanahun.

It is estimated that 70,000 people of 15,969 households in the entire Gandaki Province will be affected due to monsoon-induced disasters this year. The Plan has listed landslide as the number one risk this year in Tanahun, said Janardhan Gautam, the Chief District Officer and Chair of the District Disaster Management Committee.

"The estimates have been made on the basis of the scientific analysis of data. The risk of landslides is much higher in Tanahun district compared to other disasters," CDO Gautam added. Based on the data from 2010 to 2020 made available by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the vulnerable population to monsoon-induced disasters in 2081 BS is around one million and 250 thousand.

According to the Chief District Officer, the District Disaster Management Committee is prepared for responding to the disasters.

Four urban municipalities and six rural municipalities in the district are at high risk of landslides. The Plan identifies high risk of flooding, fires, epidemics, drought, road accident, lightning and storm in the district after the landslide.

It is stated that 48 of the total 85 wards of 10 local levels in the district are at high risk of landslide.

The flood triggered by incessant rainfall last night has taken away a temporary bridge in Melamchi.

Melamchi Municipality Mayor Aitaman Tamang said that a temporary bridge has been washed away at Fatte of Melamchi Municipality-11.

The temporary bridge was constructed by installing a hum pipe at the site after the flood in 2078 BS washed away the bridge.

The temporary bridge was connected to Melamchi bazaar and Melamchi Municipality ward 7 and 8, Panchpokhari Thangpal Rural Municipality ward 1 and 2 and some wards of Helambu.

Due to the bridge being washed away, it has become difficult to go from one place to another within the ward.

According to Mayor Tamang, the bridge has been damaged due to the rain at night.