NEPAL: Some 90 dead, 5,000 displaced as floods worsen in southwest*

02 Aug 2007 13:14:59 GMT
Source: IRIN

NEPALGUNJ, 2 August 2007 (IRIN) - Sita Chaudhary and her family have
been taking shelter from incessant rain for the last nine days in her
makeshift shack with a plastic roof in Nepalgunj town, Banke District,
in southwestern Nepal.

Like hundreds of families, she was displaced after the floods - caused
by the rapidly rising waters of the River Rapti - submerged her Ganespur
village and completely destroyed her house.

"My children are getting sick due to lack of health care and improper
food," said Chaudhary, adding that flood victims were only eating dry
food provided by relief agencies.

"We're lucky to be alive but we are unable to sleep as the dangerous
flood may kill us any time," she added, sounding frightened after many
villagers had died in Banke District.

According to government estimates, the death toll has reached nearly 90
and the number of displaced persons is now over 5,000 in Nepalgunj
alone. Most will be unable to return home for a long time as many of
their houses have been destroyed, according to the Nepal Red Cross
Society (NRCS), a key non-governmental organisation helping to provide
humanitarian aid to flood victims.

Aid agencies under pressure

"The situation is so bad and we fear it will worsen due to the heavy
rainfall even now, and there seems to be a shortage of supplies no
matter how hard we try to reach most of the victims," said Ajit Kumar
Sharma of the NRCS.

Floods happen every year in Nepal but this time the rainfall has been so
incessant that aid workers are unable to carry out their humanitarian
assistance work smoothly, said NRCS officials.

"No matter how much we try to get our food and supplies to the victims,
they never get enough because the number of victims and casualties are
increasing every day," said Sharma, who added that relief agencies were
still unable to reach many villages, especially the worst-affected ones
like Holiya and Betani.

He described an army helicopter food drop which led to fights as
stronger and younger villagers snatched the food, leaving women and the
elderly with nothing.

Health

Some health officials have warned that there is a possibility of an
epidemic if medicines, latrines and proper food and housing are not
provided soon. Some officials from local hospitals said over 1,000 flood
victims had already fallen sick, many of them due to water-borne diseases.

The long queues of patients at Bheri Anchal Hospital, Nepalgunj Medical
College and private clinics suggest that the water is contaminated and
action needs to be taken fast, officials said.

"We have been asking the government and international agencies to
provide more medicines and more health care support," said Rama Shanker,
head of Banke District public health unit.