State of Emergency in Nepal Following the Passage of a Storm in the South

On the night of March 31 to April 1, the districts of Bara and Parsa, in southern Nepal, were hit by a powerful rainstorm that killed at least 27 people and left 600 wounded. The power of the wind was such that it destroyed houses, overturned cars and buses, uprooted trees and cut power lines, blocking roads and making communication difficult.

“All employees and volunteers of CECI currently working in the country have been contacted and are safe,” said Sita Ram Bhatta, Director of CECI-Nepal. “The CECI-Nepal team is hard at work to make a more accurate assessment of the needs of the disaster areas, which are concentrated in a rural region south of Kathmandu along the border with India where houses are made of clay with thatched roofs and where communities live mainly from agriculture and livestock.”

The CECI Nepal team, familiar with humanitarian practices and the specific needs that arise following a crisis, is already preparing to respond to the recovery phase of this disaster. “According to the needs we are currently assessing, we plan to support access to clean water and food, and support the coordination of the displaced families, often grouped in camps to reduce the risk of violence experienced by women and arising from inter-caste tensions. In a later phase, we wish to support the families as they resume their activities to recover their livelihoods, helping with farming inputs and the replacement of lost livestock essential for those families,” said Dilip Chinnakonda, Director of the Asia region, Humanitarian Aid and Operations.

More details are to follow.