I. Situation Overview
Rasuwa is one of the worst affected districts by the 25 April earthquake. As of 8 May, 430 people have been reported killed and 753 injured (MoFA 08/05/2015). Most of those that died in the district were killed in an avalanche that buried inhabitants of Langtang village including tourists in the guesthouses. Some remote areas are yet to be reached or accounted for. More than 63% of the district’s territory is at an elevation of more than 3000 meters. Of the remaining territory, most parts are located at an elevation between 1000 – 3000 meters (University of Copenhagen 2005) and parts of Rasuwa were without road access even before the earthquake, further challenging the relief effort. In the first few days after the earthquake very little information was available from Rasuwa. Field reports have gradually come in that help understand the situation.
Initial estimates based on Government data of damaged buildings in the affected districts, suggests that 82% of the population of Rasuwa have been affected by the earthquake. According to Government data, 8,000 buildings were destroyed in the earthquake. This figure is however unconfirmed and represents a preliminary estimate based on the combination of reports from a range of sources providing information on needs at the VDC level1 (Please see map below for an illustration of aggregated number of reported people in need).
At the time of writing there were not very many organizations working in Resuwa although more organizations have indicated that they plan to undertake projects in Resuwa (OCHA).