News

With an interesting story in Republica of a woman rescued alive after 128 hours of earthquake, as of today’s statistics, Setopati reports that the death toll reaches over 6250 and about 14000 people have been injured. While conducting rescue and relief operations, since Saturday, 13 security forces have been killed with 101 injured and 10 missing. Other major stories covered today upto 5 pm (Nepali local time) in national and international media as well as social media, categorized under various topics are presented below:

Possibility of Outbreaks

Today too in the media, concerns have been expressed at the individual and institutional level with expressions of extreme caution needed as cases of diarrhea likely to rise and widespread awareness needed regarding consuming cooked or packed food; boiled or chlorinated water. The Indian Express also reports on the epidemic fear in camps where the survivors are residing in temporary settlements that are unhygienic. Moreover, ABC Newshas also reported that the smell of bodies is preventing survivors from returning to their homes. In order to limit the possibility of outbreaks, biomedical researcher Dr. Sameer Mani Dixit on Twitter opines that surveillance for infectious disease transmission is important.

Food, Drugs and Supplies

The situation of earthquake survivors is still miserable as media reports suggest. Image Khabar.com reports that people are forced to live only by drinking water. In places such as Melamchi and Bhalche, people are still awaiting for tents to be provided and people are forced to sleep under the sky. Pahilo Post also reports that the people of Bhaktapur are deprived of relief materials. There have also been reports of robbery of relief materials in Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha which clearly depicts that the supply of relief materials has clearly not met the actual demand by the earthquake victims.

Emergency Care

In terms of emergency care, Doctors without Borders have been providing emergency treatment in different affected areas and has been treating patients with severe emergency cases as for instance a woman being carried on her son’s back for 5 hours and then being treated. In order to support the current communications network for relief operations, BBCalso launched Viber Emergency Information Service in English and Nepalese.

Aid Management

Support in terms of financial aid is growing with Big Lottery Fund committing fund of 2 million pounds for post crisis community rebuilding in Nepal. UNICEF UK also mentions that the British citizens have collected 26 million pound so far for the quake victims courtesy an appeal made by Disasters Emergency Committee which is an umbrella organization of 13 aid charity organizations. UNICEF also has launched a 50 million pound appeal to get more vital aid to affected children. Similarly, Chaudhary Foundation has also started earthquake relief funds to aid in channeling donations effectively. With the realization that there is global concern for the quake victims and willingness for increased funding, Time Inc. Network also has suggested some alternative ways of funding options to this cause.

Government Efforts

A major step made by the government is the launch of earthquake relief fund as a single portal with all sorts of required information about the earthquake. This site includes information on important resources, helpline number, bank details of Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, Rescue and Relief Operations, List of Casualties, Press Releases and National/International Initiatives. It also includes information on contact numbers of police offices in affected areas, earthquake helpline, relief activities done by different ministries, search and rescue activities, airlifts, foods and supplies distributed, among others. There is also a provision of online donation for earthquake victims made by the government.

Government of Nepal has also planned to set up a fund worth Rs. 200 billion for reconstruction all over Nepal post the earthquake disaster. Setopati reports that 140 million rupees has been collected in PM’s Natural Disaster Rescue Fund. As a reaction to the criticism about late delivery of relief supplies, Republica reports that Prime Minister has directed Nepal Army for prompt delivery of relief materials while the government has also made a provision to allow the relief aids to be distributed by the non government and private organizations only in places selected by the government.

Public Reactions

Public reactions post the earthquake has been a mixed bag. Some have praised the level of concern shown towards supporting the quake victims as one individual on twitter writes, “Every person seems to be discussing what they can do for the victims. Never seen anything like that.” Another individual writes, “These days I am more worried about Kathmandu than my own life”. These are strong expressions of public display of human emotions flowing through the catastrophic damage of lives, property and dampened spirits. Some believe that for long term assistance, Prime Minister’s Relief Fund is the most appropriate choice. Some individuals have also expressed their anger over political leaders for not being too concerned with relief works as in the case of Panga in Kirtipur.

Rescue Efforts

Relief has been provided by USAID through humanitarian aid while religious community, Delhi Gurudwara is sending 25000 packets of food to Nepal every day. Fishtail Air helicopters are evacuating stranded villagers and tourists in Lukla while Doctors without Borders claims that a cargo plane carrying 35 tons of medical and logistics supplies including an inflatable field hospital landed last night at Kathmandu airport. Drones have been used especially to locate the devastation and affected sites while Kathmandu Living Labs in coordination with Humanitarian Open Street Map Team Mapbox Bangalore, Nepal Monitor and Parewa Labs have brought together over 2500 mappers globally to contribute to the OpenStreetMap platform to aid agencies and volunteers to plan and target their relief efforts. Setopati has covered news of high number of rescues in Gorkha while at the same time reports of no rescue efforts in Tatopani. Red Cross also realizes that greater urgency in relief efforts is required.

As a recommendation to standard rescue efforts UNOCHA lists areas to be focused while conducting rescue operations namely: Nutrition, Protection, Education, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Camp Coordination and Camp Management, Coordination between various stakeholders, Early Recovery, Logistics and Access, Emergency Telecommunications, Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Food Security.

The Impact

As a direct impact due to the earthquake, Asian Development Bank has conducted an analysis of the economic impact of the earthquake. Major predictions made are:

• Decline in production activities especially in the service sector
• Travel and tourism likely to be badly hit with key hotels closing down
• Banks and financial companies partially opening
• Decline in agricultural production
• Doubling of food inflation
• Shortage of fuel
• Slowing down of capital spending
• Remittance inflow expected to increase

There are also concerns related to mental health, especially by UNICEF as to how children will cope with earthquake’s aftermath. CNN has also reiterated similar incident of homeless and adopted children being terrified due to earthquake. ABC News has also reported, “The people are incredibly fearful. Aftershocks are terrifying - crows start their shrieking. Animals are the early warning system.”