NEPAL: Flood victims face disease, food shortages
Source: IRIN
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KATHMANDU, 16 August 2007 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families in the country's flood-hit mainly
lowland areas adjacent to the border with India continue to suffer from displacement, food shortages and disease, said aid workers. According to the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), thousands of
families are still unable to return home and are increasingly getting sick due to lack of food and proper shelter. Those suffering the most are children and the elderly. Torrential rain, which began
on 10 July, severely affected many villages and killed dozens of villagers in the Terai region, in the south of the country. In Banke District, 600km southwest of the capital, over 3,000 families
are still displaced after their houses were destroyed, said the NRCS. Health workers raised concerns over the increasing number of sick people. "We have been launching emergency medical aid services
to treat as many victims as possible," said Kewar Singh Goddar, public health chief of the government's District Public Health Office (DPHO). He said his office had treated nearly 11,000 victims in
the last few weeks. Several local and international aid agencies have also helped to set up mobile health camps near villages destroyed by the floods. Children suffering Many children are
suffering from bacterial dysentery, malaria, viral fever, diarrhoea, infectious hepatitis, amoebic, typhoid, eye infections and pneumonia, said DPHO officials. Nearly 1,400 children are affected,
according to the NCRS. "Health is our key concern, especially for the children. We are trying our best to ensure there is no epidemic," explained Goddar. Some local health workers complained about
a shortage of medicines even as the number of sick victims was rising. They said some Primary Health Care centres (PHC), the only medical centres available in remote villages, had even run out of
supplies. According to a regular assessment report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), cases of diarrhoea are increasing, particularly in densely populated
communities like the camps of ex-bonded labourers known as 'kamaiyas'. There is also an increase in mosquitoes, leading to malaria. OCHA said that due to lack of toilets, drinking water was also
expected to be contaminated and that there was an urgent need for water purification tablets. In some schools there are insufficient toilets and students are defecating in the open, thus leading to
serious concerns. Transport is also a problem: "Due to lack of ambulances for the very sick, victims are unable to travel to health facilities to seek medical help," said Laxmi Gurung, a local
health care worker. She said the only means of transport was ox carts and bicycles. "I am very worried about my children. Three of them are sick," said 35-year-old Kaira Naule. Her family have been
living in a tent along the highway in Banke District after her house was destroyed by the floods. She said she had no idea how she would support her eight-member family. "This is a worrisome
situation and we need to act fast to help as many children as possible," said Mahesh Gautam of the NRCS. nn/ar/cb© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
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