Irish relief workers tell of ‘logistical nightmare’ in Nepal

Irish aid workers helping with relief efforts in Nepal following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the country on April 25th say food and shelter remain the priorities as the rainy season looms.

According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged, and while the government has a national disaster steering committee to help co-ordinate aid, it has been overwhelmed.

The earthquake, the worst the country has seen in 80 years, affected 40 districts. An estimated three million Nepalese are displaced, although the true scale of the disaster is still unknown.

There is a bottleneck of relief materials building up at Tribhuvan International Airport due to a customs backlog. The government has lifted import taxes on tarpaulins and tents since the earthquake, but not on other relief items.

Dualta Roughneen, Plan Ireland’s disaster risk management co-ordinator and Wash (water, sanitation and hygiene) adviser, said the devastation near Dolakha, 160km east of Kathmandu, was much more serious than expected.

“I got up to Dolakha yesterday, and it didn’t look too bad, but then I got out in a helicopter and you can really see it,” he said. “The figure that 80 per cent of houses have been damaged sounds right. You look down and you see villages and there are no houses standing.”

Plan Ireland has received a delivery of more than 63 tonnes of life-saving humanitarian supplies from Irish Aid, including thousands of blankets, tents and tarpaulins.

Restrictions

The question remains if it will get through the customs, but Plan has had an office in the capital Kathmandu since 1978, and government restrictions on NGOs that did not have an office before the earthquake may not apply.

“We looking at helping 41,000 people in Dolakha based on my initial assessment. A lot of places are very hard to reach, and introducing more sustainable projects will be very difficult. People live very rural here and spread out,” he said.

Ros O’Sullivan of Concern’s emergency response team said Concern was working with Rural Reconstruction Nepal and Nepal Water for Health to distribute 10,000 shelter and Wash kits, which are at various stages of procurement, in three rural areas worst affected by the earthquake, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok and Ramechhap.

Rain to come

Aid agencies say priority needs include shelter, clean water, food and medicine. Rain is forecast in the coming days, underscoring the need for emergency shelter such as tents and tarpaulins.

The first 2,000 kits are due to arrive from Delhi tomorrow and they will be immediately sent up to Sindhupalchok where they will be distributed by RRN. Another 2,000 will come by road from India and they will be sent to Sindhupalchok and Dolakha.

Some 125,000 people will receive emergency shelter assistance and 125,000 will be included in the recovery programme. As some will receive both, Mr O’Sullivan believes some 200,000 people will be helped, and the budget for the response will be €3-5 million.

There have been tensions in affected areas about government and international aid agencies and relief not arriving quickly enough.

“Assessing has been difficult. Proper assessments will take place with a view to building a recovery programme,” he said. “It is yet to be seen if we and others can engage in house rebuilding. It’s going to be incredibly challenging. There will be a need for transitional housing,” he said. “There are massive challenges way beyond the topography and terrain of the country. It’s a very difficult one to co-ordinate. Logistics are a nightmare. It all comes down to getting co-ordination right.”

Colm Byrne, humanitarian manager at Oxfam Ireland, said Oxfam was looking to reach over 350,000 people spread over three areas of Kathmandu, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok and Ramechhap.