Nepal quake: aid finally begins to arrive in remote villages, sent by locals
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Version 0 of 1. In Bunkot, a remote cluster of villages clinging to high ridges at 7,000ft in the Himalayan foothills, aid has finally begun to arrive. Fewer than 15 miles from the epicentre of Saturday’s quake, lashed overnight by heavy rain and hit by a series of powerful aftershocks, the area is one of the worst affected in Nepal. And yet, on Thursday night, at least a few hundred homeless villagers prepared to sleep in marginally better conditions, free from hunger for a few hours. As NGOs and the Nepali government struggle with the massive logistical difficulties of bringing in and distributing the huge quantities of material needed for the hundred thousand people thought to be homeless in the area around Bunkot, informal local initiatives are getting some help through. Related: Nepal earthquake: how to donate Early on Thursday morning, pickup trucks carrying bedding, snacks and other vital materials arrived in Bunkot, sent by a restaurant in the Chitwan national park, about 50 miles away. The vehicles managed to get through before rain cut the mud track to the nearest metalled road leading to Gorkha Bazaar, the district centre. “There is a very important need. These people just need to survive. We can’t wait for the government. We decided to do it ourselves,” said Naresh Giri, manager of the KC Restaurant and Bar. As tempers rose outside the partially ruined school where the handout was taking place, Sobita Amjin, 25, collected a roll of foam bedding and some snacks. “Our house was badly damaged and collapsed completely with the aftershock. We are all living outside. We have no shelter, nothing. We are happy to get this but need much more,” Amjin said. Half a mile away, filthy, ragged men from Mahadipur village set about unloading a cargo of 58 sacks of rice from a bus which had travelled 50 miles to reach them. “My brother sent it. He is a businessman. When the telephones came back on, I told him we had no food left and were very hungry,” Ganga Athi Kari, 50, said. Like many Nepalis among the 8.1 million people effected by the quake – of whom 1.4 million need food assistance, according to the United Nations – villagers in Bunkot are angry at the slow pace of aid distribution. “How can so much time pass and we are suffering still?” asked Bimolla Adikhari, 40. Though the situation is improving in and around Kathmandu, huge numbers of people are still without any help. The situation is particularly bad in Gorkha district, of which Bunkot is a subdivision. There is almost no information about the 10,000 people who live in its northernmost areas, close to the border with Tibet. Kempo Chimed Tsering, a local religious leader and former minister, said he had flown into villages close to the mountain of Manaslu, the eight highest in the world, and seen “terrible scenes”. “There are still injured there who have not been treated. Whole villages are flattened. They need tents very badly,” he told the Guardian. Tsering said more than 70 Nepalese army and government helicopter missions had distributed food and other material that he had provided. Some NGOs are now also working in Gorkha. More than 2,000 kits including tarpaulins, kitchen utensils and blankets have been distributed by Save The Children, most by helicopter. Lynette Lim, communications manager for the NGO in Gorkha, flew over villages near the epicentre on Tuesday. “It’s very clear that those places are hard to get to. It’s either a helicopter or nothing. Some are between five and eight days walk away,” Lim said. Landslides have now made trekking routes and paths lethal, but helicopters are often grounded by bad weather and are too few to distribute anywhere near the quantities of aid required. Nepal is appealing to foreign governments for more helicopters. There are currently about 20 Nepalese army, private and Indian army helicopters involved in rescue operations, according to Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a home ministry official. Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also surfaced. In Langtang valley, where 150 people are feared trapped, a helicopter pilot was taken hostage by locals demanding to be evacuated first, one report said. Related: Nepal earthquake: two rescued after five days in Kathmandu building wreckage The official death toll in Nepal has reached 5,489. It does not include the 19 people killed at Mount Everest – five foreign climbers and 14 Nepalese Sherpa guides – when the quake caused an avalanche at base camp on the world’s highest peak. Nepal’s national emergency operation centre says more than 130,000 homes and 10,000 government buildings have been destroyed. Swarathok, a village in Sindhupalchowk district visited by the Guardian three days ago, still had not been visited by a government official by Thursday night. Swarathok, which had been almost completely destroyed, is a two-hour drive then an hour’s walk from Kathmandu. At least two trucks of aid organised by concerned locals in Kathmandu have now reached the district and aid from established NGOs is also beginning to arrive. One team of doctors spent eight hours in the area on Thursday. However, heavy goods vehicles are in short supply, the nation’s only international airport is heavily congested, and there is a shortage of space to stock incoming relief supplies. Many aid organisations have warehouses full of material in the region, in Dubai, or the Philippines, but are unable to bring it into the country. Trucks carrying food and other essentials from India are now arriving, though. Among those blocked are specialist air traffic control teams who could help ease the congestion. They are currently waiting in Abu Dhabi, one aid worker said. Officials have defended the government’s relief effort, saying they are doing what they can with limited means. In the district headquarters of Gorkha, policemen and soldiers loaded sacks of rice on to trucks and drew up lists of possible recipients through the night. Related: A graphical guide to Nepal's earthquake “We are only sleeping six hours since Saturday. We are pleading for more helicopters and more resources,” said Uddab Prasad Timilsina, the most senior administrator in Ghorka district. An hour’s walk beyond where the staff of KC Restaurant and Bar were distributing their supplies was another village, perched above terraced fields and a precipitous drop to the valley floor below. All its dozen or so homes had been damaged. Rameshwa Ragumi, 36, had walked for two days carrying kilos of rice across country from Kathmandu, a distance of about 50 miles, to be with his elderly parents and wife. “We are better off than a lot of people. At least we have something to eat and a cattle shed to keep the rain off,” Ragumi said. |