An initial $2 million has been released from the United Nations Global Emergency Fund (CERF) “to save lives with emergency medical care, shelter, water”, the UN’s relief chief Tom Fletcher said on X.
In Nepal, immediate humanitarian needs are huge in the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading and communities face immense challenges as families cope with loss, displacement and disruption to essential services.
The UN chief pledged swift support.
“The United Nations is mobilising supplies and humanitarian teams and we pledge to support national efforts to deliver emergency aid and support,” Secretary-General António Guterres said.
The flash floods have swept away or cut off entire communities, with roads, bridges, hydropower facilities, water systems and telecommunications networks badly damaged, leaving affected areas largely inaccessible and hampering the delivery of lifesaving aid, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.
At least 17,000 children have been impacted by the devastating flash floods that tore through Nepal’s Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts.
“Children across Rasuwa and Dhading saw their lives being literally washed away in front of their eyes in a very short span of time, with homes, classrooms, and medical facilities damaged,” said Alice Akunga, UNICEF Representative to Nepal.
“Too many lost their lives and loved ones. With the death toll still rising, we know this tragedy is far from over. Children who have survived the floods now face heightened risks of disease, malnutrition, violence and exploitation.”
For its part, UNICEF is on the ground and scaling up support, “but we urgently need more resources to reach every child in need”, Ms. Akunga said.
“UN agencies are deployed to affected areas with food, medical supplies and relief materials in support of the government-led response and stand ready to do more,” the UN office in Nepal wrote on Facebook.
In China, around 560 people remain missing, according to the authorities, while the UN country office on Wednesday reported damage and significant numbers of casualties and destruction in the Tibet autonomous region of China.
Meanwhile, in support of the authorities and the wider response, WHO has dispatched an interagency emergency health kit, containing medicines and supplies sufficient to provide basic health services for up to 10,000 people. The UN health agency has also provided six multipurpose tents to help sustain health service delivery in affected communities.
“These supplies are intended to support frontline health workers as they continue providing critical care and responding to the immediate health needs of affected populations,” the UN agency explained on Facebook.
“WHO remains committed to working closely with health authorities and partners to assess the evolving situation, support emergency health services and help ensure that people continue to access the care they need during this difficult time.”
In addition on Thursday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) planned to start deploying staff and trucks carrying relief supplies.
Efforts also continued to rapidly assess the scale of the disaster, in particular from secure satellite imagery and analysis of the area impacted by flooding, provided by the UN platform for the UN Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER). Managed by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the initiative connects disaster management experts with space agencies to help disaster risk reduction, early warning and emergency response activities.
A collapsed glacier high up in the steep-sided valleys of the Himalayas has been cited as a possible cause of the sudden flash-flooding and mudslides that have destroyed entire communities and washed away bridges and roads.
Rasuwa district some 80 kilometres north of Kathmandu in northern Nepal was hit particularly hard, including the towns of Timure, Rasuwagadhi and Syabrubesi, a popular trekking destination among tourists, climbers and pilgrims wanting to access the Langtang valley.
The area was also hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015, which killed more than 8,800 people. Last October, torrential rains caused fast-moving floods and landslides across eastern and central Nepal, affecting more than 30,000 people.
UNDRR, the lead UN agency for the coordination of disaster risk reduction, projects that the world will experience 560 medium to large-scale disasters annually by the year 2030.
“Global disasters are projected to increase by 40 per cent between 2015 and 2030, driven by climate change and systemic underestimations of risk,” the agency said.
In addition to the human cost of such disasters, the annual cost is $2.29 trillion and rising, when indirect and ecosystem impacts are factored in, UNDRR said. This figure is nearly 10 times the annual direct losses reported in official figures.
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