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A person died while 17 persons working at a hydropower project have gone missing after being swept away by flooded Hewa river in Sankhuwasabha district. The District Police Office, Sankhuwasabha said that 17 persons have been missing after the flood damaged the under construction Super Hewa Hydropower at Dobhane in Chainpur-4. Police said that they found a body on the bank of Hewa river at Panchkhapan Municipality-5. DSP Birendra Godar said that the identity of the deceased is yet to be established. Locals said that the flood in the river also swept away seven houses on the bank of river and also washed away a motorable bridge connecting Panchkhapan and Chainapur.    

At least five persons have gone missing in the flood at Hewakhola following a heavy rainfall in Panchthar district since last night. The missing persons have been identified as Dil Kumar Tamang of Hilihang Rural Municipality-7 and Sanjog Lowa of Phidim Municipality-10, workers of Hewakhola Hydropower Project-I. Likewise, Ashish Majhi and Alisha Majhi of Phidim have also gone missing in the flood. The Hewakhola bridge linking Phidim-4 and Hilihang-7 along the Mechi Highway has also been washed away, completely disrupting the vehicular movement along the highway, according to DSP Hari Khatiwada. Similarly, the flood also washed a belly bridge along the Tamor corridor. Police said that the flood destroyed a motorable bridge in Phalelung Rural Municipality-3.

Four persons including three of a single family have gone missing in separate incidents of landslide in Mehel Village of Sidingwa Rural Municipality, Taplejung, following a heavy rain since last night. Kamal Kadariya, a local resident, said that Bhagimaya Budhathoki, her daughter-in-law Sandhya and Sandhya's son Prajwal have been missing after a landslide buried their house. Likewise, Bharat Tamang has gone missing in a separate landslide in the same village. Tamang went missing in the landslip while returning after shifting his parents to a safe zone from their house, which is on the bank of a river. Vice-Chairperson of Sidingwa Rural Municipality Bandana Kadariya said that a team of police personnel is heading to the incident area from Sablakhu Police Post. Similarly, the landslide washed away the house of Raj Kumar Gautam at Mehel while three houses are at risk of landslide. Similarly, the landslide completely destroyed the building of the Mehal Health Post. Sidingwa and Sirijungha area in the district have been receiving continuous rain since last night. The landslides at different places have disrupted several road networks in the village and the power supply has also been disrupted at Yamphudin, Khewang, Mehel, Surumkhim, Angkhop and other villages. Likewise, Dovanbazaar is at high risk of inundation while some houses in the Dovanbazaar have been damaged. The Chaitanya Budhathoki (a local teacher in the village) said that some houses have been inundated in the swollen Ingwakhola river. The flood has also caused damage to the Ingwakhola Hydropower Project. Details of the disaster in the district are awaited.  

It is a duty of the media to accurately report conflict issues as they have a key role to play to maintain and promote reconciliation and peace in the society, a study report released today stated. The report "Conflict-Sensitive Journalism and Communication in Nepal" found out 0.26% of news stories, opinion pieces and editorials, out of a total of 14,422, to be insensitive to conflict. The research, carried out by the Media Action Nepal as part of the GIZ's Civil Peace Service program, provides baseline information on the current situation of Conflict-Sensitive Journalism in Nepal and offers key suggestions to promote conflict sensitivity in Nepali media. "The mainstream media seem sensitive about communal issues and censor news stories about cases of conflict between different religious communities. But the new media, mainly online media outlets, seem insensitive to communal issues and risk of making the matter worse," the study said. "For a long time, discussions on conflict-sensitive reporting were confined to the mainstream media. This has entirely changed now with the emergence of online news platforms. The so-called mainstream media alone do not set the narrative. Online news media also set the narrative on certain issues," the report further stated. Those working for online news media, however, lack a proper understanding of conflict-sensitive journalism, the study concluded. Even as different types of conflict remain at the local level, media coverage of those issues is limited with journalists in need of proper knowledge, skills and tools, the report said. On media capacity-building, the report said that journalists and editors have not received any training after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Nepal and the rebel party in 2006. "Before the CPA or during the conflict, there was a flood of training on how to cover the conflict. After the war was over, conflict-related training was not imparted to journalists." The study was jointly launched by Chairperson of Media Action Nepal Laxman Datt Pant, Chairperson of Minimum Wage Fixation Committee Sangita Khadka, Communication Registrar of Bagmati Province Rawati Sapkota and Chairperson of Advertisement Board Laxman Humagain. Speaking on the occasion, Pant, who is also the lead researcher of the study, said that media persons should not merely cover the consequences of conflict, but also report its root causes and solutions. The book launch was followed by a panel discussion joined by CEO of Freedom Forum Taranath Dahal, senior journalist Namrata Sharma, former Commissioner of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Manchala Jha and Editor of Annapurna Express Kamal Dev Bhattarai. The experts agreed that conflict reporting in Nepali media has been mainly gendered and male-dominated in absence of an inclusive newsroom leadership. One of the recommendations of the study calls on media houses to lay the ground for institutional initiatives to prioritize conflict-sensitive journalism. "For this, media institutions, academics, civil society organizations and journalists should together work on an appropriate working modality," it further said.