Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT-NEPAL: Some Flood Victims Unreachable

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Sep 1 2006 (IPS) - Emergency crews piloted five rubber boats across a swollen, racing river in west Nepal on Friday to deliver food and other essential supplies to families trapped by torrential monsoon rains and resultant floods during the past week.

“There are still people who are not entirely in touch,” said United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Nepal, Matthew Kahane, after a tour of Banke and Bardiya districts 500 km west of the capital Kathmandu. Other flood victims were sleeping on roadsides on tarpaulins, he added.

At least 45 people died and 69,000 were “severely affected” when downpours hit 15 western districts in the South Asian nation starting Aug 24, reported the Nepal Red Cross on Friday. “At least 66 people are still missing,” it added.

Landslides swept away homes in remote hill areas but most of the damage occurred on the southern plains bordering India.

Bardiya and Banke were hardest hit. “Many parts of Banke, Bardiya, Nawalparasi and Kailali (districts) are still submerged, which has been a constraint to the response work,” said the Red Cross in a bulletin. “As there is no road link to the affected areas and the only means of transport is helicopter, response has been difficult.”

“Roughly 10 percent of the people in each district were affected in some way,” Kahane told IPS after returning to the capital Friday evening. “That doesn’t mean they’re all homeless or without food…but it’s clearly going to be far beyond the financial means of the district authorities to deal with.”

On Thursday, the Nepal government pledged 24 million rupees (324 thousand US dollars) to assist both those hit by the floods and farmers on the other side of the country struggling with a drought. U.N. agencies and international non-governmental organisations have also pledged assistance and cash but money for food remains the most urgent need, according to Kahane, followed by safe drinking water.

Despite responses from U.N. agencies and government officials, media reported locals criticising the slow aid efforts, particularly medical assistance. Flood victims in Bardiya blockaded the district administration office on Thursday to protest the lack of help.

As many as 1,000 of the 6,000 displaced people living in 17 temporary camps in Bardiya were suffering from pneumonia, water-borne illnesses or other ailments, according to one report. Many people had no choice but to drink dirty water.

In Banke a team of government officials working with the Red Cross, the lead relief agency, had started to distribute food aid in 18 communities. As many as 40,000 districts residents were forced to flee their homes when the Rapti River overflowed its banks.

The waters receded when India opened a dam downstream and many locals blame Nepal’s giant southern neighbour for the flooding, which occurs annually but rarely so severely. Nepali members of parliament made the same accusations at their session Monday.

One of the major problems is that India has blocked all natural water drainage from Nepal, said an engineer at Nepal’s Ministry of Water Resources on Friday, adding, “India has closed all of it so it can divert water for irrigation”.

Various bilateral committees have been created to deal with water disputes between the neighbours and last year one such group decided that one embankment was responsible for flooding in Banke. “It was decided that India would open the embankment of the Satia River. Up till now it has not done so,” the engineer told IPS.

In Accham district north of Bardiya it was a river of earth and stones that washed away homes in two communities Saturday, along with footpaths linking them to the outside world. Continuous rain meant that helicopters could not fly in relief supplies.

Eight people were killed, 94 houses were damaged and 800 persons were displaced by the landslide. About 100 homes remain in the path of the still moving landslide, reported ‘The Kathmandu Post’ Friday. “It’s almost certain that it will continue to slide,” said Kahane.

It is also “almost inevitable” that a rash of diseases will be reported, he added, but to date there have been no “significant” outbreaks. “An emphasis has to be put on the surveillance of communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, viral hepatitis, skin diseases and malaria,” Kahane said.

The U.N. Children’s Fund, through the Red Cross, has dispatched relief supplies -including tarpaulins, blankets, oral re-hydration salts, water purification materials, household utensils and blankets – to the worst affected areas, he added. Also, the U.N. Population Fund has set up two mobile health clinics in Banke and Bardiya to support basic health care services.