Kathmandu: As dark clouds loomed overhead, Rabi Baral hurriedly secured his tent to the ground at a camp for victims of Nepal's earthquake, three months after the disaster upended his life.
The 7.8 magnitude quake on April 25 destroyed the 41-year-old's home and left him without a job, forcing him and his young family to take refuge in a makeshift camp in Nepal's capital Kathmandu.
“The rain has made life even more difficult, but we have no choice right now,” Baral said. People were desperate to return home to the hills east of Kathmandu but were too afraid to risk travelling on quake-hit roads that now face the threat of landslides triggered by heavy rains.
Three months on, Nepal is still reeling from the impact of the earthquake that killed over 8,800 people and flattened nearly 600,000 homes, leaving thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), landslides are already hampering delivery of relief supplies to mountainous villages and there are concerns that the monsoon could trigger an outbreak of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.
Edwin Salvador, Emergency and Humanitarian Technical Officer at WHO Nepal, said that the agency had already delivered three months' worth of medicines to remote villages at risk of landslides to ensure adequate supplies in the event of an emergency.
Nepal's economy -- one of the world's weakest even before the disaster -- was hit hard by the quake, with the country's annual GDP forecast to grow just three percent, the lowest in eight years.
Growth prospects have plummeted in crucial sectors like agriculture and tourism, with the disaster destroying crops and triggering deadly avalanches at Mount Everest base camp and on the popular Langtang trekking route, which is closed to visitors.
One month after the government pledged to lay out a clear roadmap to recovery at a donors' meet, Kathmandu is yet to set up the new body, while homeless victims have received just $150 out of a promised $2,000 to rebuild their houses.
Every year, thousands of young people leave Kathmandu in search of jobs in India, South East Asia and the Gulf nations, keeping the economy afloat with the earnings they send home. After the disaster, many Nepalis are looking overseas to secure the funds they need to rebuild their lives, with quake survivor Baral saying that he hopes to go to India to find work. AFP
