Airport damage hampers Nepal aid efforts
Print Edition
RUNWAY damage forced Nepalese authorities to close the main airport yesterday to large aircraft delivering aid to millions of people following the massive earthquake, but UN officials said the overall logistics situation was improving.
The death toll climbed to 7,250, including six foreigners and 45 Nepalese found over the weekend on a popular trekking route, said government administrator Gautam Rimal. The victims included a French national, an Indian, four other foreigners and Nepalese guides, hotel owners, workers and porters.
UN coordinator for Nepal, Jamie McGoldrick, said the bottlenecks in aid delivery were slowly disappearing.
“I think the problem is there, but it’s actually diminishing,” he said. The Nepalese government had eased customs and other bureaucratic hurdles on humanitarian aid following complaints from the UN, he added.
“The government has taken note of some of the concerns that we’ve expressed to them and they’ve addressed those both at customs and the actual handling,” he said.
Airport congestion was only the latest complication in global efforts to aid people in the wake of the April 25 earthquake, the impoverished country’s biggest and most destructive in eight decades.
People in Nepal — both in remote villages and the capital, Kathmandu — have complained about not seeing any rescue workers or international aid and about a lack of temporary shelters, with many sleeping out in the open because of fears of aftershocks bringing down their already damaged homes.
Runway deteriorating
Birendra Shrestha, the manager of Tribhuwan International Airport on the outskirts of Kathmandu, said bigger planes were banned because the runway was deteriorating. It was built to handle only medium-size jetliners and not the large military and cargo planes that have been flying to the airport since the earthquake struck, he said.
The past week has seen a steady procession of big jets trying to fly in goods and relief workers, as well as a swarm of journalists, but the airport has parking slots for only nine jets and just one runway.
There have been reports of cracks on the runway and other problems at the only international airport in Nepal and the only one capable of handling jetliners.
A week after the quake, aid has been slow in reaching those who need it most. In many places, it has not come at all.
On Saturday, UN humanitarian officials said they were increasingly worried about the spread of disease and more helicopters were needed to reach isolated mountain villages.
The true extent of the damage from the earthquake is still unknown as reports keep filtering in from remote areas, some of which remain entirely cut off. The UN says the quake affected 8.1 million people — more than a quarter of Nepal’s 28 million people.
The country has been shaken by more than 70 aftershocks following the quake, and its people remain on edge. A brief aftershock on Saturday afternoon shook the only paved road in the village of Pauwathok. Residents screamed and began to run, then stopped when the tremor eased.
The village is in the Sindupalchok district, where more deaths have been recorded than anywhere else — 2,560.
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