Life in Hilly Areas: Challenges and Struggles During Rainy Season

When the weather is hot and people are suffering from the heat, they pray for rain. But we, living in hilly areas, pray for no rain because after rainfall, the walls of our houses develop cracks and sometimes even collapse. When the monsoon season starts, while others enjoy the rain, we take precautions to protect our homes and children. The settlement where we live is between two hills, and when it rains, water from both hills flows in front of our houses, causing problems for us.

During rainfall, the rhythm of life here becomes chaotic. The roads are plagued by potholes, as the rain causes the roads to deteriorate. The flowing water also weakens the foundations of the walls. Due to the informal settlement, the infrastructure here is very weak. The houses are made of 4-5 inch blocks, and building RCC houses is very expensive. People here cannot afford it. Moreover, there is no specific supplier of blocks and materials.

Here, the ground floor roofs are made of cement and iron guarders with cement slabs. A layer of cement is applied on top of them to make them stronger. But when it rains, the structure gets damaged, and water leaks from the roofs. Our rooms get flooded. Some weak walls even collapse during the rain.

I get the repairs done every year before the rain starts, and after the rain, if there are more damages, I get them repaired again. Now, I have become so used to it that I can do small repair work myself. On July 20, it rained, and after that, my water tank started leaking because there was a crack in the wall. Although I had already repaired it before, the same spot cracked again.

This time, I thought of buying a 500-liter plastic tank from the market instead of repairing it, because I know that the cement tank is in bad condition. And even if I repair it, it won't last long. Because the weather forecast has predicted more rain. But my boss (mother) has strictly ordered me to repair it. So, how can I disobey my mother's orders.

Yesterday, I drained the remaining water from the tank and then used a chisel and hammer to widen the crack so that I could fill it with cement paste. But just as I was doing this, it started raining, and I had to stop the work. The photos I shared with you are from yesterday. You can see how much water flooded our street in just 10-15 minutes of heavy rain. Fortunately, the rain was light for the rest of the day. And then, this morning, the weather seemed better, so I went back to the tank to complete my unfinished work and filled the crack with cement paste. Hopefully, once it dries and solidifies, I'll clean the tank and fill it with water to see how long it lasts.