Don’t send old clothes for survivors: Nepal
Ramkot, barely 4 km from Kathmandu, is still awaiting relief; officials blame damaged roads for delay
Nepal has asked India not to send old clothes for survivors of a monster earthquake that uprooted millions of people 10 days ago and left the Himalayan nation grappling with its worst humanitarian crisis in decades, officials said.
Aid has been pouring for millions of Nepalese desperate for food and shelter since the 7.9-magnitude quake flattened large parts of the country, with India leading relief efforts to help Nepal get back on its feet again.
Of ficials said Ne palese authorities detected some sacks with old clothes packed with other relief material when the first wagon carrying supplies by train reached Birgunj port, about 10 km from Raxaul, India’s last border district in Bihar.
Indian officials said Nepalese authorities rejected the consignment and told their Indian counterparts that “left-over food in plate should not be served to them”.
“I removed the consignment of old clothes and junked it at our port,” B Mohan, chief executive officer of Himalayan Terminals, an Indo-Nepal joint-venture firm looking after terminal operations at Birgunj, told HT.
The port has received 171 tonnes of relief supplies through the rail route from India since the exercise began on May 2.
“We now check any consignment of clothes before handing them to Nepal. On May 4, we found brand new towels in one such consignment, which the Nepalese authorities happily received,” said Raghvendra, an IAS probationer, overseeing the operation at the port.
Nepal has asked rescue teams to wrap up operations as authorities are now focusing on rebuilding lives with hopes fading of finding any more survivors buried under the rubble following the April 25 quake that killed more than 7,000 people. India was the first country to respond to Nepal’s quake.
Around 50,000 residents of Nepal’s Ramkot village, barely four kilometres from Kathmandu, are spending their nights in makeshift tents with fast dwindling food supplies as no relief or rescue effort has reached them after the April 25 earthquake.
“We have more than 1,000 households in this village. Most houses have been completely destroyed while wide cracks have appeared on the walls, floors and ceilings of the few buildings that are still standing. With no government help and support, we don’t know how we will survive,” Dinesh Sunar, a jeweller from Ramkot, said.
“Since the day of the quake, we were buying rice from a local shop. That store was destroyed and it started operating in the open after which the rice was finished quickly. For the past two days we are living on parched rice. We are afraid that even this stock will run out,” said Sunil Rai, another local resident.
The villagers are now apprehending the outbreak of diseases. “If something like that breaks out, we will die as there is no access to medicines,” said Sunar.
While a few people managed to build makeshift shelter with tin shades and tarpaulin sheets, the rest are living under the open sky since April 25.
An official from the Nepal government confirmed that though Ramkot was quite close to the capital, the roads connecting it to Kathmandu had been destroyed and it was impossible to carry relief material. “The government is trying hard to distribute relief material among the victims of Ramkot. But it will take a few more days,” claimed the official.
Rupesh Poudel, the president of Ramkot’s Unesco club, said, “The condition is pathetic here. The government has started acting but it’s very slow. What we feel is that the problem is with funds.”