KATHMANDU – British Minister of State for International Development Right Honourable Desmond Swayne today toured the Humanitarian Staging Area (HSA) at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu that is managed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The HSA was funded by the United Kingdom and allowed the free flow of humanitarian aid into Nepal immediately after the April earthquake.
“Having the Humanitarian Staging Area in place just one month before the earthquake may seem lucky, but it was actually the fruit of two years of planning and investment,” said Desmond Swayne. “This type of investment is fully in keeping with the international community’s commitments at the UN Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan earlier this year.”
Pippa Bradford, WFP’s Country Director accompanied the Minister on his tour. “WFP was able to respond here at Kathmandu airport from day one. The fact that the HSA had been inaugurated on 27 March saved the humanitarian community at least one month’s time in mounting the massive response from around the world to the earthquake,” she said.
The visiting British delegation, which included representatives of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in Nepal, toured warehouses and watched as a DFID-donated forklift loaded corrugated iron sheets for villagers whose homes were destroyed by the quake.
WFP Officer Ratinda Khatri explained to the Minister how he rushed to activate the HSA within minutes following the quake. “In a matter of hours we had a dedicated team working from these container offices, and we could handle cargo as soon as the first airplanes loaded with humanitarian aid started landing. Many relief workers were sleeping inside the containers, on the floor. Within days, this whole area was filled with humanitarian aid but it was continuously moving out to where it was needed,” he said.
Ganga Prasad Neupane, Under-Secretary at Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs, shares an office with WFP’s Ratindra Khatri at the HSA. “The coordination between the National Emergency Operation Center, the Ministry of Home Affairs, WFP and the Logistics Cluster has been excellent. It has allowed us to handle, store and dispatch the humanitarian cargo to the earthquake affected areas in a very efficient way,” he said.
John Myraunet coordinates logistics for over 140 humanitarian organizations using the HSA. “In the first days or weeks during typical disaster response situations, airports quickly become logistical bottlenecks, and it is not uncommon for much-needed aid to pile up, go unused and even get soaked in the rain. This didn’t happen here, as mobile storage units, connected with hubs in the field, were already in place,” he said.
To date, 5,741 metric tons of cargo have passed through the HSA, which was built thanks to a donation of US$3.2 million by DFID.
“Logistics is the backbone of any humanitarian response, and nowhere is this as true as in Nepal, home to eight out of the world’s 14 highest peaks,” said Stephen Anderson, WFP Emergency Coordinator in Nepal. “Still today, one quarter of the humanitarian cargo has to be transported by helicopter to very isolated communities. We could only achieve this thanks to ongoing excellent cooperation and close partnership with the Government of Nepal, and the generosity of our donors.”
At the end of the visit, Minister Swayne concluded: “Investing ahead of disaster has made this relief operation a fantastic success. It has established a new standard for the United Nations, and others will now have to live up to this standard.”
/# # #
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
Follow us on Twitter @WFP_Media @WFP_Asia
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Seetashma Thapa, WFP/Nepal, Mob. +9851177901
Iolanda Jaquemet, WFP/Nepal, Mob. +9802039598