Parasi, Aug. 12 -- It's 01:25 on the clock. In the dead of the night, young men are hauling sacks filled with soil on the banks of the Narayani river in Susta Rural Municipality-5 of West Nawalparasi. Those unable to carry the heavy sacks are busy arranging a wire mesh.

On Sunday night residents of Susta worked round the clock, racing to reinforce the riverbank for fear that floodwaters from the Narayani might spill into their settlement.

Sitting along the riverbank, residents, including Kamal Bhagat, were teaching other young men how to reinforce the embankment, drawing on techniques they had learned from previous efforts to protect the settlement.

This is not the first time that Susta residents have worked day and night to build make...