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Updated: Dec 26th, 2005


Terraced rice fields down the Siran valley from Bhogermang

Bhogermang is a village located in the Siran valley. It was recently adopted by Relief International for the continuation of the Green Sandwich project that was previously in Malkan.

On the way to Bhogermang one passes a field of enormous boulders. These (smaller) boulders are in a stream bed that passes through the area. Locals say that several years ago three to four hundered people died when a landslide sent the rocks tumbling down the hill. Despite the remarkable distance from the actual hill, they claimed many lives.

A boy in one of the outlying homesteads of Bhogermang.

Two workers load bags of cement at the site of the demonstration building.

A chilling scene in the village and a reminder that even small rocks, by geological standards, can easily be lethal for people. This is why villagers are so afraid to move back in to standing structures, even if they are sound.

An improvised see-saw.

Another scene from the village... kids playing on the see saw...

Inside a ruined house.

A local resident.

The local mosque, largely unusuable but still standing. At least one part of it is still in use, but it will likely be torn down, eventually.

Here workers dig holes for the concrete footings of the demonstration structure.

A community meeting to discuss RI's plans in the village

Locals help clear a pile of rocks from a site where RI put up a storage tent.

Rubble in the heart of Bhogermang.

A channel for the spring water that feeds the village. The infrastructure of pipes and what sewage facilities were there were destroyed. This channel remains through the middle of town. In some places the earthquake altered the underground flow of aquifers in the area, and some new springs have sprung while others have stopped flowing. This alters not only the human relationship to the water source but the general ecology of the areas affected.