Relief efforts will have to reach out to eight million people
GN Bureau | April 30, 2015
Around $415 million are required to get the quake-ravaged Nepal back to normal, a UN report estimates.
The report, ‘Flash appeal for response to the earthquake’, has estimated the requirements to reach over 8 million people with life-saving assistance and protection over the next three months. This was done by assessing the requirements like food security, health, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, education and others.
READ: Death toll rises to 5,000
Going by this assessment, over 70,000 houses have been destroyed. Over 3,000 schools located in the 11 most severely affected districts are damaged. Up to 90 percent of health facilities in rural areas have been damaged. Hospitals in the district capitals, including Kathmandu, are overcrowded and lack adequate facilities. Many temples and heritage sites have collapsed. The more modern structures have withstood the severity of the quakes.
Among the affected population, 32,00,000 are women and children. Of the total women, 5,25,000 are in the reproductive age, of whom 4 percent (21,500) are pregnant. Also, 21,00,000 affected
population is below the age of 18.
READ: What happened in Nepal
The Food Security Cluster of the UN estimates that around 30,50,000 people are in need of food assistance in the country. Of these, 7,50,000 people live near the epicentre of the earthquake in poor quality housing. Impact on agriculture-based livelihoods and on food security is expected to be extremely high.
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