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Deadly flooding hits Nepal after record rains

More than 200 people have been killed by flooding and landslides across Nepal over the last four days. Officials say the death count has reached 225 and that at least 143 people have been injured. 

 

The rains that caused the flooding, including the capital Kathmandu, were the most intense recorded in the country in the past 50 years. 

 

Survivors are criticising the government’s response, saying it failed to adequately respond to the needs of those affected. Among the complaints is the fact that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was visiting the United States at the time of the flooding and failed to cut his trip short, even as the toll continued to rise.

 

"At a sensitive time like this we all have to work together realistically, not criticise just for the sake of it," Oli said to reporters after returning to the country on Monday.

 

The flood damage spans from the capital, Kathmandu, to small villages in the Himalayas, with residents of the more remote areas saying they still haven’t received the assistance they so badly need. Adding to the difficulties in the more rural areas, bridges and roads were swept away, and the flood waters disrupted both electricity and telecommunications lines.

 

Media reports say that the damage in the capital has been mostly in Kathmandu’s poorer, less-developed neighbourhoods. Most of those are located near the Bagmati River, which separates the capital from the city of Patan. 

 

Neighbouring India expressed its condolences for the damage and also said they would be working to help evacuate Indian citizens who have been left stranded by the record rainfall. Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large number of Nepali workers, also expressed his condolences to his Nepali counterpart, Oli.

 

For more on how natural disasters in Nepal are often looked by aid donors, read:

Casualties were limited following a November earthquake and months of landslides that followed in Peru’s Amazonas region, but most residents in villages like San Isidro lost their homes and livelihoods.

Most aid funds go to just a few disasters. What about the rest?

Aid groups and governments respond to hundreds of disasters each year. But inadequate funding and a short attention span leave many survivors adrift.

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