Relief materials given by India dispatched to Nepal's quake-affected areas as fresh tremor jolts region

Jajarkot/Kathmandu: Two truck-loads of emergency relief materials provided by India to Nepal were dispatched to the quake-affected northwest mountainous region where people are facing a shortage of food, clothes and medicines as a fresh tremor struck the region on Monday.

Nepal was jolted by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake just before midnight on Friday that killed 153 people and injured over 250 others.

The earthquake, which hit Jajarkot and Rukum West districts in western Nepal, also damaged around 8,000 houses, both public and private, according to officials.

Chief District Officer (CDO) of Banke, Shrawan Kumar Pokharel, said the relief goods were sent towards the disaster-affected areas from Nepalgunj Airport and escorted by personnel from the Armed Police Force Nepal.

Pokharel said a truckload of relief goods is for Jajarkot and the other for Rukum Paschim (West) relief materials will be handed over to the chief district officers of the respective districts.

The relief materials include 625 units of plastic tarpaulin and tents, 1,000 units of sleeping bags, 1,000 blankets, 70 large-size tents, 35 packets of tent accessories, medicines and 48 other articles, officials said.

A special Indian Air Force C-130 flight landed in Nepal on Sunday carrying the first consignment of emergency relief materials worth Rs 10 crore. India has become the first country to dispatch emergency relief materials to the earthquake-hit districts in Nepal.

Ambassador of India to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, handed over the relief goods to Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka.

Meanwhile, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck Jajarkot and surrounding areas at 4:31 p.m. (local time), according to the National Seismological Center.

The epicentre of the quake was at Ramidanda of Jajarkot, it said. This was followed by another 4.5-magnitude earthquake at 4.40 p.m., said another official.

President Ramchandra Paudel has cancelled his planned 10-day visit to Europe in view of the devastating earthquake, his office said on Monday.

In a press release, Kiran Pokharel, press advisor to the president, said President Paudel will visit earthquake-affected areas on Tuesday morning.

The survivors of the catastrophe cremated their deceased relatives on Sunday. Due to the difficult terrain, the relief materials are yet to reach several areas.

According to Suresh BK, a resident of Chiuritol, 13 people lost their lives in the village while several others were injured in the earthquake.

At least 56 houses in the village were completely destroyed while 110 houses, although still standing, have become inhabitable, said Suresh.

The villagers have been waiting for help to arrive. 'But so far, we have not received any. All our crops, grains, food, clothes and other valuables lie buried in the debris. We haven’t been able to retrieve anything as there are no security personnel to help us,” The Kathmandu Post newspaper quoted Suresh as saying.

“It is unbearably cold outside and none of us have had any sleep since Friday night.” Chandra Prakash Gharti, mayor of Bheri Municipality, said that the local unit is collecting data to streamline relief distribution, which has caused delays in dispatching relief materials immediately to the affected villages.

The earthquake victims are in need of immediate help and blame the government for delayed response even during emergencies.

Kalawati Singh, a local survivor in Chiuritol, said that after two nights out in the cold, the villagers have started to fall sick.

'Elderly people and young children are falling ill. We don’t have warm clothes and have been spending our days and nights in the open field,' Singh said. 'There are no doctors or any medical help here. We have food left for a maximum of two days. We hope more help will soon arrive.” Karna Bahadur BK, a local of Aathbiskot Municipality who lost his 27-year-old cousin on Friday night, said that managing tarpaulin, blankets and food for the surviving members of the family is proving difficult with each passing day.

'I finally managed to find a tarpaulin tent for my family. There are limited resources here and people are struggling,” said Karna. “No help has arrived. People are starving, falling ill, and fighting for food. Children and the elderly are in failing health but help is nowhere close.” Deputy Prime Minister Khadka said on Sunday that the government has kept medical treatment, relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake survivors in priority, myRepublica newspaper reported.

Stressing that the government was successful in rescuing the quake-injured people in a single day by mobilising the entire state apparatus, he said the distribution of relief to the survivors began on Sunday itself.

On Monday, authorities revised the death toll from the earthquake to 153 from 157, citing duplication of some names.

Earlier, 105 deaths were reported in Jajarkot, the epicentre of the earthquake, and 52 deaths in Rukum West district. Now the District Administration Office in Jajarkot has revised the death toll in the district to 101. The toll in Rukum West remains unchanged.

Friday's quake caused the worst human and infrastructure losses since the devastating jolt of April 2015.

In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude quake damaged nearly 800,000 houses besides killing nearly 9,000 people, according to the Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report, 2015.

'As per the initial estimate, around 3,000 houses have been fully damaged while an additional 5,000 suffered partial damages,” said Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesman for the home ministry. “The final tally of damaged homes is yet to come.” Preventing possible outbreaks of communicable diseases in the coming days will be challenging, as people are forced to live in the open amid growing chill, Krishna Bahadur Khatri, information officer at the Health Office Jajarkot.

'An outbreak of communicable diseases—cold-related ailments and waterborne diseases—is likely in the coming days due to falling temperatures and damaged infrastructure.” Along with houses, toilets were also destroyed in the quake. Officials say the destruction of toilets increases open defecation, which risks contamination of water sources. The risk of vector-borne diseases—malaria, dengue, kala-Azar and scrub typhus among others—also increases, according to experts. PTI SBP/NSA ZH AKJ ZH ZH