Owing to a mountainous topography, many parts of Nepal are inaccessible during monsoon season; travelling to those more accessible can also be perilous at this time due to landslides. The problems that monsoons bring are more severe this year in aftermath of the devastating earthquake on April 25, and its destructive aftershock on May 12, itself measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale. The earthquakes have killed more than 8,500 people, affecting millions in Nepal, more than half of whom remain displaced.
Those living in far-flung areas have it worst. The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there is no road connectivity for around 315,000 people in the 14 most affected districts, while another 75,000 cannot be reached even by air. The numbers are substantial even when seen against the 1.9 million people that are in immediate need of food assistance and the 8.1 million needing humanitarian support. They must not be left out of relief efforts because of inaccessibility. Relief material must be rushed to them before heavy rains lead to landslides, cutting off roads and making the task more difficult.
The relief material must include life saving medical supplies and essential drugs, as the monsoons in Nepal bring an assorted set of illnesses, from gastrointestinal to respiratory and even hypothermia, which the rudimentary public health system of Nepal struggles to handle. This monsoon can be a particularly disastrous as the earthquakes have damaged 26 of Nepal’s big hospitals, as well as 1,100 other health facilities, which directly over 5.6 million.
With limited access to health care services for the majority, and with many communities forced to live out in the open in temporary shelters, fears of epidemic outbreaks that can inflict high casualties are real.
The kneejerk response of the government to the situation is reflected in its decision to declare only the districts Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur – all in national capital – as ‘crisis zone’, while ignoring the hilly districts. Relief and rescue operations have bypassed the hilly districts as it is, when those are the areas that have needed relief and rescue the most. The government’s declaration, ignoring demands of lawmakers from these districts for immediate relocations for landslide threatened settlements, has lifted the last veil of pretence.
The international community needs to wake up to this gross neglect. It needs to step in and pull up Nepal government. Relief materials need to be rushed to the people in far-flung and inaccessible areas.
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About AHRC:The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
