Powerful aftershocks continued to convulse Nepal on Sunday, sending residents of Katmandu screaming into the streets again and again a day after a devastating quake killed more than 3,700 (available number till now) and injured many thousands. Streets in parts of this city of about 1.2 million were impassable not so much from quake damage but because tens of thousands of people have taken up residence there. It was a strategy endorsed by a government entirely overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge facing the country. As the country’s prime minister, Sushil Koirala, rushed back to Katmandu from an official trip to Southeast Asia it became clear that the Nepalese authorities were ill-equipped to rescue those trapped and would have trouble maintaining adequate supplies of water, electricity and food. The official death toll in Nepal alone has increased to more than 3,700 according to the Nepalese government’s national emergency operation centre.
Its Twitter account said more than 3,000 bodies had been recovered amid reports that hospitals are running out of space for the dead.
The UN food agency said it is preparing a large-scale aid operation starting on Tuesday. “This will be a large, massive operation,” Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme, told AFP. Experts said that shelter and medical equipment should be the first priority.
The World Health Organization said it had already distributed medical supplies to cover the health needs of more than 40,000 people for three months in the country. But with food also expected to quickly run scarce, the UN agency has “mobilised all of our food stocks in the region,” Byrs said.
WFP is loading a plane with rations of food that does not require cooking in Dubai, and Byrs said it would likely arrive in Nepal Tuesday. However bad and damaged roads and inclement weather may not allow to reach the things to faraway places. It is sad to say that the worst-hit area was in “an agricultural zone that is home to between two and three million people.”
Death toll expected to rise sharply
The eventual death toll could exceed 15,000, a leading aid agency fears.
Lex Kassenberg who is directing Care International’s response to the disaster, pointed out there were reports that between 70% and 90% of houses in some remote villages have been destroyed. Speaking to the Guardian via Skype, he said: Information from the surrounding districts is only trickling in. But you can imagine – the government has declared 30 out of the 75 districts as emergency areas, so my fear, and that of the international community, is that these numbers will really go up to over the 10,000, 15,000.
He said the priority now was to provide emergency shelter to those left homeless by the earthquake, as well as water and sanitation. But he warned that many remote areas will only be accessible on foot on paths that may have been destroyed. Kassenberg warned that the forthcoming monsoons could bring more devastation. “The challenge will be that in five or six weeks the rainy seasons starts in Nepal. If the top soil has been loosened by the earthquake we may see more damage during the monsoons.”
The Jesuits and other religious working in the area seemed to be safe. Our schools are used are shelter for people. Traumatized people of Nepal are still staying in the open air due to frequent aftershocks. It is a calamity that has caused a big blow to the Himalayan nation. It is a time when humanity must show its oneness and compassion. The victims of this devastating earthquake are our brothers and sisters.
~ Sunny Jacob, SJ