Kathmandu, Sept 29: Efforts to use explosives to clear the blocked Marsyangdi River in the Chame area of Manang have yet to succeed.
According to Manang Assistant Chief District Officer Krishna Prasad Paudel, a Nepal Army technical team from Pokhara reached Chame on Monday to carry out controlled blasting but has been unable to proceed.
“The technical team arrived in Chame yesterday, but the problem is that they have not found a suitable location for blasting,” Paudel told Onlinekhabar.
He said blasting requires a large rock formation, but none has been found around the blockage.
“The river has been blocked by a mass of gravel, sand, trees, soil and other debris. As a result, the team could not find a suitable place for blasting,” he said.
With blasting not immediately possible, authorities have deployed two machines to excavate the debris and clear a channel for the river.
The Marsyangdi was blocked in the Chame area after continuous rainfall triggered a debris flow in the local Ghatte Khola, depositing large quantities of rocks, gravel, sand and mud into the river.
Water has begun flowing partially from the lake formed behind the blockage. However, Paudel said the impounded water still stretches about 400 metres in length and up to 80 metres in width. The lake is estimated to be around 20 feet deep.
Four days of continuous rainfall have also disrupted electricity, telephone services and road networks in several parts of Manang.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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