Humanitarian aid flowing into Nepal does not reach its destination due to lack of necessary coordination.
Humanitarian aid has been pouring into Nepal since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Saturday April 25. But while entire villages remain desperately unreachable and cut off from the world, NGOs and states denounce an alarming lack of coordination.
Indeed, while the toll of the earthquake is increasing day by day – 7,276 dead, more than 14,000 injured and millions of people who lack everything – humanitarian aid is struggling to organize. Tons of food and medical equipment, as well as dozens of medical teams from all over the world, were dispatched to the scene, but failed to reach their destination.
Saturated airport, unnecessary parcels
Kathmandu airport, which has only one runway, is overcrowded. Aid is piling up there, the media report. “The influx of recent days is slowing down the delivery of aid,” testifies the head of a French NGO to the newspaper. The world. We had to wait 36 hours before picking up our equipment at the airport. There really is a lack of international coordination ”.
Criticisms taken up in heart by the various States represented on the spot. Thus, the Indian government has also expressed its annoyance with the organization of aid on the spot. “Coordination is a real problem,” says a member of the newspaper. Times of India. All foreign teams are at the disposal of the Nepalese Army and work under its operational command. We can’t go anywhere on our own. Result: things are not moving with the pace and efficiency that are required in this situation ”.
In addition, the country suffers from overabundance of inappropriate donations, which obstruct the arrival of really needed help. Nepal’s finance minister therefore appealed to international donors to send tents, tarpaulins and basic food items. “We received things like tuna and mayonnaise. What will it serve us? We need cereals, salt and sugar, ”he said.
The helpless WHO
The organization of humanitarian aid is however at the center of the concerns of the UN, which wishes at all costs to avoid the errors observed in 2010 during the earthquake in Haiti. At the time, the massive arrival of humanitarian groups more or less equipped and competent only added to the chaos, for lack of coordination and identification of real needs.
Since then, the WHO has set up a network of foreign medical teams and a register in which they must register before entering the country. The objective is to accurately assess present and future humanitarian resources, and to remedy the administrative organization flaws characteristic of these situations. “We are working with the Nepalese government to deploy aid in the territory effectively,” assured Why actor WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic on April 29. The results are unfortunately not yet at the rendezvous.
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