Nepal flooding, landslides after heavy rains leave nearly 200 dead

Nepal began on Monday to grapple with damage wrought by deadly floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains as residents faced the daunting task of cleaning homes and extracting their broken belongings from mud.

At least 192 people died and 32 were still missing in two days of incessant rains caused by a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal and over areas in India bordering Nepal.

In the northern areas of Bangladesh, separated from Nepal by a thin strip of Indian territory, more than 100,000 people were stranded following heavy rains and the onrush of water from upstream, officials said.

Hill-ringed Kathmandu Valley, which is home to four million people and the capital, alone saw 56 deaths and suffered one of its worst devastationin recent years where rivers spilled over banks and flooded homes, hospitals, roads, bridges and markets.

Nepal has shut schools for three days after floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry, told Reuters on Sunday.

Some parts of the capital reported rainfall of up to 322.2 millimetres, pushing the level of its main BagmatiRiver up 2.2 metrespast the danger mark, experts said.

Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Kathmandu.

Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighbouring India close to Nepal.

Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

"I've never before seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu," said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the centre.

In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to "urgently" step up investment in, and plans for, infrastructure, such as underground stormwater and sewage systemsboth of the "grey," or engineered kind, and "green," or nature-based type.

The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanization efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retentionand encroachment on the BagmatiRiver, it added.

The level in the KoshiRiver in Nepal's southeast has started to fall, however, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region's top bureaucrat.

The river, which brings deadly floods to India's eastern state of Bihar nearly every year, had been running above the danger.