Kathmandu, Sept. 30 -- A month after the Bhotekoshi floods tore through settlements in Rasuwa, the immediate danger appears to have passed, but the disruption remains. Roads and bridges are still broken, homes and public buildings have been swept away, schools remain closed, and farmers are watching crops rot in fields they cannot reach by road.

For families living in temporary shelters and holding centres, relief has helped them get through the first few weeks. But they are now confronting a harder question: how to rebuild their lives when the routes back to their villages remain cut off and their livelihoods have been destroyed.

For Dolma Yangjen Tamang of Syaphrubesi in ward 5 of Gosainkunda Rural Municipality, rebuilding the road an...