Aid boss warns Nepal recovery will take years
People sleep on streets in fear of another earthquake
A SCOTS aid worker said it will take many years for Nepal to recover from Saturday’s earthquake as he appealed for more help to get the country back on its feet.
Mervyn Lee, senior adviser with global humanitarian group Mercy Corps, who are in Nepal distributing urgently needed relief kits to areas in and around Kathmandu, said the death toll which has now passed 5,000 will rise as there are large parts of the area that have been inaccessible.
He spoke from the capital Kathmandu as the Nepal prime minister Sushil Koirala said the death toll in the country could reach 10,000.
He said the nation was on a “war footing” as it tries to help survivors and said the government was doing all it can but was overwhelmed.
Nepal has declared three days of mourning for the victims.
Mr Lee, from Strathpeffer, speaking from Kathmandu, said survivors were living on the streets or on green spaces such as fields and football pitches because they were scared to return to their homes for fear of further quakes.
British and Irish medical staff, experts and volunteers have been dispatched to the worst-affected areas, with the RAF, firefighters from the UK International Search and Rescue Team and medics from the Doctors Of The World charity among those involved.
Mercy Corps, which has its European headquarters in Edinburgh, has been working in Nepal since 2006 and has a team of our team of 90 there, mainly local people, several of whom have lost their own homes, but remain focused on helping their neighbours survive and their communities recover.
Mr Lee said: “The atmosphere in the city is quite tense. People are frightened of another earthquake.
“We had an aftershock at 5am on Tuesday and thankfully there hasn’t been one since.
“There’s a pattern of aftershocks that has been very severe in the last three days and have slowed down, and hopefully that will stop.
“In Kathmandu, people are still sleeping on the streets. There are lots of people who don’t want to return to their house because they are frightened of another earthquake and the house coming down.
“It is is a very historic city, very old buildings, a lot of those buildings are down and there is a great deal of heritage damage.
“The rest of Nepal, east and west of Kathmandu, the hill villages leading up to the Himalayas we don’t know much about yet because access has not been possible.
“It may take two or three days to get to where we want to get to because there is very little information about the state of the roads.”
Kits being distributed include items such as toothpaste and toothbrushes and cooking utensils.
But rain is significantly hampering their efforts. Roads are blocked with mudslides due to the heavy storms and there is a potential for flooding and even avalanches.
Heavy vehicles and helicopters are busy with search and rescue, and right now are not available for aid delivery to remote villages.
Mercy Corps aid workers heard that some hill villages, including ones that rely on wells for water, have been destroyed.
Many terraced farms have also been destroyed by landslides.
“Going into remote areas we may encounter avalanches but that is what the population has to deal with,” said Mr Lee.
“The immediate requirement is access to people, then it is a matter of medical help for a lot of people in the first place, moving bodies and then it is matter of cleaning up and reconstruction.
“The message is clear to people outside of Nepal. This is the most devastating thing to happen to Nepal in the last 80 years, the recovery time, reconstruction time will be many years.”
Anxious relatives can call the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on +44 (0) 207 008 0000.
To help aid the Mercy Corps relief effort you can donate via the mercycorps website.