1 May 2015

Nepal earthquake: is aid reaching remote villages?

Aid organisations say food and medical supplies have started arriving in earthquake-stricken Nepal – but one aid worker tells Channel 4 News that some areas still remain out of reach.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in the worst earthquake to hit the country in 80 years, and at least 14,000 have been injured.

In the past two days, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its affiliate corporations donated over 100 tons of food to the worst-hit districts. The UN Children’s Fund delivered nearly 30 tons of supplies, including tents, water purification tablets, and first aid and hygiene kits.

WFP helicopters have delivered 6,000 metric tons of rice to three villages in the Ghorka district, though the poor visibility and the rough terrain made deliveries by helicopter challenging.

A WFP-chartered planeload of 50 metric tons of high-energy biscuits arrived in Kathmandu for urgent distribution to affected people affected by last Saturday’s earthquake.

Drones

International Medical Corps also stepped up its efforts to deliver medical relief to those living outside the Kathmandu valley. But the inaccessibility of remote disaster areas, a lack of helicopters, poor communication and security concerns remain the main challenges in delivering relief.

Sean Casey, emergency response leader for International Medical Corps, in Nepal, told Channel 4 News: “The northern parts of the districts, to the west are really inaccessible. Everybody is struggling to get to these remote side villages.

“So we have teams out now, with 4×4s we’re looking in to trekking clinics, we’re looking at helicopters, we’re looking in to drones to get eyes on some of these villages.

“We’re even looking into things like paragliders and going in by horse if we can. We’re now six days out from the earthquake and some of these villages have still not been accessed.

“In Ghorka we’re trying to arrange a chopper, the government is controlling the helicopters and using most of them for medevac, which is obviously understandable, but it’s difficult to get air assets in some of these locations at this point.

“What we’re hearing is a sense of desperation because they haven’t been reached at all, so they’re struggling for food, they’re struggling for water. Desperation is the word that best describes the situation in these remote areas.”

Public donations

More than £26m has been raised from public donations in the UK – including £5m from the government – by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which is co-ordinating the aid efforts of the UK’s leading charities.

The UK government has also pledged £15m, as well as £2.5m to the UN’s Humanitarian Air Service, which will increase helicopter capacity and enable aid to be taken to remote areas.

An RAF Chinook helicopter is also expected to leave the UK to help the aid efforts in Nepal as rescuers continue to hunt for survivors. Three RAF CH47 Chinook helicopters are being sent to Nepal over the coming days.

A team of Gurkha engineers also arrived in the Himalayan country aboard a C-17 aircraft, along with 18 tonnes of aid supplies that included shelter kits and solar lanterns.