Nepal floods ruin merchants and traders ahead of crucial festival season
The catastrophe struck just ahead of the crucial September-to-November Hindu festival season, when celebrations typically drive a surge in spending.
Flash flood survivors gather to receive utility aid from a temporary relief camp at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on Sept. 3. | AFP-JIJI
Sep 4, 2026
The clothes Ashok Kumar Chaurasiya wore as he fled his textile shop in Nepal’s Trishuli Bazaar last week were almost all he has left after the floods.
The 62-year-old trader, who moved from India to Nepal about four decades ago, had built six shops and stocked up ahead of the festival season.
Last Wednesday, with only minutes between the warning and the water reaching the settlement, Chaurasiya, his son and mother raced to higher ground on a motorcycle. “If we had been 20 seconds late, three of us in the family would have gone,” he said.
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