HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
An estimated 1.4 million people continue to require food assistance to meet their daily dietary requirements while 1 million people need support to protect and restore their agri-based livelihoods. Markets functionality remain limited in a large portion of worst earthquake-hit areas and a number of roads are significantly damaged or not passable.
With the high level of damage caused by the earthquake, restoring livelihood assets is expected to take some time and support is needed to ensure that the affected people avoid negative food consumption coping strategies such as limiting meal portions or reducing the number of meals.
The monsoon season which began in June is characterized by an overall near-normal cumulated precipitation; however, the distribution of rainfall has been erratic and unevenly distributed across the country.
This translates into near-normal vegetation index in most of the central Region, although marginal anomalies are observed in Langtang Valley (Rasuwa District), Gaurishankar VDC (Dolakha District). Monitoring will continue in July. Concretely, this means that the rice growing period is marginally affected by reduced rainfall for the time being but further prolonged period with no rain could significantly impact the overall production.