KATHMANDU, 3 October 2008 (IRIN) - Nepal's precarious food security situation is being tested after heavy flooding over the past two months in both the east and west of the country left almost 250,000 people displaced.

Nearly 33 out of 75 districts in the country are chronically food insecure, with more than six million or 20 percent of the total population vulnerable, of whom 2.5 million are in immediate need of food assistance, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

More than 60,000 people were displaced in Sunsari District after the Koshi River, Nepal's largest, burst its banks on 18 August.

Barely one month later torrential rains resulted in heavy flooding in the west of the Himalayan nation, displacing over 180,000, mostly in Kailali and Kanchanpur in the Terai (flatlands in south Nepal).

The floods hit when the country was already reeling from drought-led crop failures, spiralling food and fuel prices, political strikes and road blockades, according to government officials dealing with disaster relief.

Mounting pressure on food aid

WFP is under increasing pressure to expand its food assistance for the flood-displaced.

"That's a quarter of a million of new people who need our food aid and they need it quick because of this immediate disaster," WFP country director Richard Ragan told IRIN in the capital, Kathmandu.

Of the nearly US$10 million needed so far, they have received just $3 million.

Supplies provided by the Nepalese government, NGOs and international aid agencies are running out, prompting the government to request WFP to step in.

According to WFP, all families in the east have been provided with full rations and supplementary feeding as access is relatively easier than in the west where the displaced are spread out over a larger area and often returned to their homes prematurely due to lack of proper shelters.

Contingency food stocks have been supplied and delivery of emergency food supplies began on 2 October to reach Bardiya, one of the affected districts.

However, WFP explained it could be weeks before the same level of assistance was achieved in two of the most affected districts, Kailali and Kanchanpur, given logistical complications.

Fighting many problems

WFP has raised nearly $56 million of its annual budget of $106 million in Nepal.

The agency is running some major operations including feeding school children, providing supplementary feeding to pregnant and new mothers and their infants, rebuilding infrastructure related to peace operations and assisting nearly 110,000 Bhutanese refugees.

"We are having to fight many problems at the same time. We are working in an environment of general instability, shortage of available food and fuel," said Ragan, explaining that the flood and landslides were making the food aid situation more complicated.

Local NGOs say logistics are becoming increasingly difficult. For instance, in the food-insecure hill districts like Accham and Dadeldhura of northwest Nepal, where torrential rainfall caused more than 25 landslides, roads have been washed away and the debris is still difficult to clear, despite efforts by the government, they explained.

"Fortunately, we now have our own helicopters and we can reach the most difficult places of the country on a regular basis that were cut off before," said Ragan.

In 2006, after WFP started its first emergency food operation in the country, the number of people receiving food aid increased from less than one million to 2.4 million.

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