KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): With homes destroyed, livelihoods lost and food supplies running low, flood survivors in Nepal are struggling to rebuild their lives as the need for safe shelter, clean water, food and essential household and hygiene items remains urgent.
At least 1,350 people were killed and nearly 5,000 remained missing following the floods on Aug 26, according to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority.
Islamic Relief Nepal’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager Pragya Adhikari said many people had lost family members, homes, food stocks and their sources of livelihood following the disaster.
"In many communities the Islamic Relief team visited, we saw the impact was very extensive,” she said during an interview on Bernama TV’s Bernama World programme, titled Nepal's Humanitarian Crisis, on Monday.
Adhikari said residents in Rasuwa, a district near the Nepal-China border, in particular, were in urgent need of emergency shelter kits, while demand for food was also increasing among households whose existing supplies were running low.
She said humanitarian assistance was reaching affected communities, although access remained a major challenge, particularly in remote areas where infrastructure had been damaged.
In Ramche and Grang in Rasuwa, Islamic Relief Nepal distributed 95 emergency shelter kits to flood-affected families on Thursday (Sept 3) and handed over another 905 kits to the local government for further distribution.
Adhikari said some communities across the Trishuli River, which is a major tributary of the Narayani River basin in central Nepal, remained inaccessible by road, prompting local authorities to plan the airlifting of essential supplies.
"Basically, the assistance is moving, but reaching the most isolated families requires coordinated alternative transportation as well as continuous assessment of access,” she said.
She said logistical difficulties in transporting large quantities of relief items to areas with damaged infrastructure made close coordination with local authorities crucial.
According to Adhikari, local governments and authorities were best placed to identify areas that remained inaccessible and determine the safest alternative routes to reach affected communities.
Despite the devastation, she said many survivors were already attempting to recover from their losses.
Adhikari said some residents staying at temporary shelters or holding centres would return during the day to areas where their homes once stood to retrieve belongings and clear debris from partially submerged houses.
She said witnessing the determination of survivors who had lost almost everything was deeply moving.
Adhikari also acknowledged that the disaster had taken an emotional toll on humanitarian workers, with Islamic Relief teams deployed in the field since shortly after the floods.
She said witnessing widespread infrastructure damage and the suffering of affected communities could be distressing, but helping families receive urgently needed assistance continued to motivate relief workers.
For those outside Nepal wishing to support the response, Adhikari said coordinated humanitarian assistance based on needs identified on the ground would be most useful.
She said cash assistance and donations through trusted humanitarian organisations could enable agencies to procure and deliver food, shelter materials and other necessities according to actual needs in affected areas. -- BERNAMA
