Missing or stranded children, desperate relatives, a lack of clean drinking water and destroyed homes.
Flooding from the Himalayan mountain range and a powerful landslide in Nepal on Wednesday morning have devastated infrastructure, water pipes and villages.
Now aid workers and organisations are frantically searching for survivors in the disaster-prone areas between Tibet and Nepal. Save the Children is one of the organisations that, through aid groups on the ground, is providing affected people in Nepal with temporary shelter in the form of tarpaulins, tents, water purification, blankets and other necessities.
Many children were on their way to school that day. Several of these children are now missing, stranded or separated from their families, says Ayush Joshi, programme manager at Save the Children in Nepal, to TT.
Electricity out
A majority of the families who lived in the affected areas have now lost their homes, which were destroyed in the floodwaters and landslide, he says. They are now in assembly halls or under tarpaulins.
Ayush Joshi is himself in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, which was not directly affected by the disaster, but describes the situation based on testimonies from the organisation's team on the ground in the disaster-stricken areas.
"The roads have been blocked by mud, the electricity is out and the network connection is poor. Our biggest priority now is that children receive immediate assistance in the form of necessities and that we build a safety net for women and children who are at risk of sexual violence as a result of the disaster," he says.
Lack of clean drinking water
While rescue teams sent by the Nepalese government search for missing people and rescue people from the landslides, the organisation focuses on trying to provide safety, protection and, not least, clean drinking water to those in need after the disaster.
"There is a great shortage of clean drinking water because the water systems were demolished in the flood. With that shortage comes the risk of disease," says Ayush Joshi.
Help and support will be needed for a long time to come, also considering how children in the affected areas have been psychologically affected by the disaster, he notes.
The death toll is rising after the flash flood that hit the border area between Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday.
By Thursday, over 350 people had been confirmed dead.
Over 1,400 people, including hundreds of tourists, are missing in Nepal and Tibet.
People from over 30 countries are among the missing, according to information from the Nepal Tourism Authority.
A Swedish citizen and a foreign person living in Sweden are among those missing, according to the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
Rescue operations are still ongoing and the figures are preliminary.
Source: TT and AP
